


Drop a Stone 2020 version -- The Time Wedgie

by Smoke_Bramandin



Series: Drop a Stone [10]
Category: Legacy of Kain
Genre: Mentor/Student, Prophecy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 25,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26827033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smoke_Bramandin/pseuds/Smoke_Bramandin
Summary: Because of writer's block that originated in events during Whim of Fortuna, I decided to write an in-universe retcon.  Archimedes is still aware of the bad timeline, but he can't perfectly predict the outcomes of changing events.
Series: Drop a Stone [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605454
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Ellette was thirteen and Lailah’s oldest daughter. Because her mother had married Catullus and then had to give up her humanity to stay with him, it left Ellette as the only full human in her family besides Archimedes. Because of that, Archimedes made a point of spending at least a couple of hours with her per month.

“Hello Uncle, we got an assignment in school that I’m having trouble with,” Ellette said. “We have to make a speech about what jobs we want to do when we grow up. One of them has to be something that our parents don’t do.”

“So what have you decided on?” Archimedes asked.

“That’s the thing,” Ellette said. “The teacher posted a list of jobs, but nothing really appealed to me. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do and I’m almost jealous of my half-sibs.” What she was referring to was how Kamilah and Adem were expected to act as mediators between vempari and humans, much like Ribaki was being trained to mediate between vempari and Hylden.

Archimedes thought for a moment. “I never considered how overwhelming it might be to have such freedom. If I hadn’t been assigned a role, I can’t imagine what I would have ended up as. I know a little charlatanism, but even with that I was told to learn the basics and I found that I enjoy it.” He used his powers to gaze at the list. “That list is far from complete. What do you enjoy doing now?”

“I like embroidery, but not enough to be a full-time seamstress,” Ellette said. “I like listening to Birney and Ribaki tell me about their cities.” 

“Do you enjoy writing things down? Perhaps you could collect stories,” Archimedes said.

“I’d need someone else to put it on paper.” Because Ellette was left-handed, she was almost hopeless with a quill. Fortunately, it was normal to use wax tablets for anything that didn’t need to last long. “Would I be able to make a living that way?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Archimedes said. “I consider it valuable for information to be preserved, but I cannot afford another servant.”

“The teacher didn’t say anything about it having to be realistic,” Ellette said. “That does leave the question of what I’m actually going to do.”

“You have a few years left to find something,” Archimedes said. “I’ve tried to read your Destiny, but it can’t possibly be right.”

“What is it?” Ellette asked.

Archimedes shook his head. “I don’t want to burden you with thoughts of what cannot happen.” What he saw was that Ellette would share a fate with her mother; an arranged marriage in Letestadt.

Ellette shrugged. “If I could do absolutely anything I wanted to do, I would be the queen of someplace.”

“You certainly know how to dream without limits,” Archimedes said. “It is possible to run for mayor.”

Ellette shook her head. “The people can decide that they don’t like the mayor anymore and elect a new one. Queen is forever.”

“The only reason Kain managed to be emperor for so long is that no one was strong enough to do anything about it,” Archimedes said. “I would say that he still had a responsibility to his subjects, but I imagine that anyone who expressed discontent with his rule was swiftly and painfully executed.”

Ellette grimaced slightly. “You really know how to kill the fun, Uncle. I know that being a good ruler is a lot of hard work.”

Archimedes frowned for a moment before his expression softened. “You’re right. I am being too serious right now.”

Ellette shrugged again. “All fun aside, I would like to be a mediator or councilor, but I still have to do something else if I want a comfortable life.”

Valeholm and Carthage both had trappings of the old vempari culture. Even though they abandoned the religion associated with the Wheel, the vempari were not equipped to throw out everything to start again. In the old culture, the priesthood would be fully supported by the community. In the new way of doing things, spiritual advisors were given some favors in exchange for their service, but they still needed to earn their living with a practical contribution.

“If that is what you really want to do, then…” Archimedes was cut off mid-sentence by a blinding headache. Then he collapsed and began seizing.

Archimedes came to in a familiar place. It was the private medical room in Ozker and Chixiksi’s home. The two men were standing over him with worried expressions.

Archimedes rolled onto his side and curled into a ball. “Time does not like to be tampered with. From my title, I need to give you instructions and they need to remain a secret until you’ve carried them out.”

After they listened to what Archimedes wanted to do, Chixiksi asked, “Why do you need us to relay instructions to other people?”

“Because I might not be able to act in the right moments,” Archimedes said. “I’ll try to shield myself the best I can, but I still may become incapacitated.”

Ozker frowned. “You will stay here as much as possible as long as there is a risk that you’ll have another seizure. They are more dangerous if you are alone.”

Archimedes nodded. “I’m surprised that you’re being so reasonable about this.”

“I don’t like that this might injure you, but you are doing it for a good reason and I’m not sure that I have the means to stop you,” Ozker said.

“The integrity of the Circle is more important than my individual health; though I think I’ll be fine when it’s over,” Archimedes said.

Chixiksi asked, “Do you have a contingency plan for if something unexpected happens?”

“What do you expect to go wrong?” Archimedes asked.

Chixiksi and Archimedes discussed scenarios for hours. At the end of it, Archimedes gave a small smile. “I never realized just how good you are at anticipating events.”

Chixiksi snorted. “It’s a basic requirement for anyone who wants to do potentially dangerous experiments. Methodically think about everything that could go wrong, then design ways to reduce the chances of that happening and countermeasures for if they do happen.”

“Did Sarah ever loan you that book about the wombat?” Archimedes asked.

“If I didn’t know better, I would say that the wombat was based on a Hylden scientist,” Chixiksi said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Chapter 10 of The Whim of Fortuna

It was nearly seventeen years since Sarah was removed from her Guardianship, and she was in Letestadt as a servant of the Circle. With the conclusion of her business, she was being escorted out of the city. Since she was posing as simply an outcast Razielim, they did not know that she had some powers associated with classical vampires, which meant that she had to be out of sight before teleporting.

They had to walk past a shrine to Fortuna, and there was a commotion. A young girl, possibly seven, was being roughly handled by an angry man. There were a few other people, but they simply watched.

Sarah frowned and asked, “What’s going on?”

“She’s an offering thief,” one of the bystanders said. He turned and startled when he noticed that Sarah was a vampire.

“Let her go, Fortuna doesn’t mind,” Sarah said.

“What do you know about Fortuna?” the man growled.

Sarah quirked her head. “I know that she doesn’t care about the offerings. She’s capricious and dispenses good and bad luck at random. That’s what the blindfold symbolizes.”

The man frowned in confusion. “She can still see us.” Sarah read his thoughts enough to know that he had no idea why the Lady was blindfolded. He also thought that the apples were to mollify her until the ball was found.

Sarah reached up to the statue and sliced through the blindfold, it was her favorite shade of blue, revealing the statue’s unpainted eyes. Sarah ignored the gasps. “Look at this, little lady. They let orphans starve while providing you with a banquet that you don’t even care about. Do you think that’s funny?”

“Do not bring the Lady’s wrath down on us,” a woman said.

“Having something like her throwing a temper tantrum is a scary thought, but it’s better than having to live your lives trying to placate a spoiled brat that can’t be bribed.” Sarah placed a foot against the shrine and pushed, causing it to topple.

Her escorts brought their spears down. “You’re under arrest.”

Head Chancellor Caldwell led Kain to Sarah’s cell. “Your servant caused quite the commotion.”

“She’s been known to do that,” Kain said. “She had assured us that she would be more mindful of her actions, but I suppose that we expected too much from her. This was not condoned by any of us.”

When Sarah heard Kain approaching, she stood and approached the bars. She had removed and folded her servant’s tabard, and she wordlessly offered it to him.

Kain took the cloth. “What were you thinking?”

Sarah shook her head. “The religion is getting out of hand. Something had to be done.”

“The Circle cannot save you from your idiocy.” Kain turned to Caldwell. “If she were human, what would the punishment be?”

“We do not have a rule for what she did,” Caldwell said. “The penalty should be death.”

“We’re willing to allow you to handle her justice,” Kain said. “I’ll even attend the execution. It’s been a while since I’ve had live prey and the executioner should make a fine meal.”

Caldwell frowned at Kain. “You would still hold to that?”

“She has not illegally killed a person,” Kain said. “I’m aware that you try to bait vampires into breaking the law, and I will not have that extended to whatever legal loopholes you create.”

Caldwell crossed his arms. “Bait it is, then.”

“I want to provide witnesses, vampires that can be trusted to follow orders,” Kain said. “Other than that, this should be interesting.”

Hema was closest, and she snorted as Kain tried to hand her Sarah’s servant tabard.

Kain chuckled. “You’ve survived her presence before. Wearing something that smells like her until a black-ribboner gets here won’t hurt you.”

Hema flattened her ears as she snatched the tabard.

A cage was erected in the main courtyard of Letestadt, and Sarah was put inside. Then the offering thief that had inspired her outburst was thrown in as well.

The Head Chancellor gave a speech explaining what was happening, ending with, “Whoever helps either of them is not only risking the wrath of Fortuna, but punishment under the law as well.”

“This is cold, Chancellor,” Sarah said. “Do you have any idea how long I can go without blood? Look at her and tell me that you would make a child suffer over a bit of food that no one else intended to eat.”

The Chancellor merely turned away and left.

Sarah sat on the floor of the cage, on the opposite side from the girl. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess. I don’t even know what would have happened to you, but it has to have been better than this.”

The girl tried to wipe away her tears. “They would have beaten me and then left me to the whim of Fortuna.”

“I’ve run into an offering thief before. His luck was pretty decent after that. My name is Sarah, what’s yours?”

“Anice.”

A few hours passed. The crowd had thinned, but there were still enough people milling around to still call it at least a throng.

“I’m thirsty,” Anice said.

Sarah turned to the guard. “How about getting her some water?”

“No help,” the guard said.

Sarah stood up and yelled, “She will die of thirst long before I am even tempted if you do not at least bring her water!” She turned to a random person in the crowd. “You. The well is right over there.” But the woman shook her head.

Sarah looked across the courtyard and met Radley’s gaze. She had noticed him there a while ago, but this was the first acknowledgement of it that she gave. He stared for a moment, nodded grimly, and then left.

More hours passed. The sun set, bringing with it a chill wind. Anice shivered.

Sarah said, “I’m not much warmer than the air, but I can try to shield you from the wind.” Anice walked across the cage and Sarah helped her to get comfortable before pulling a wing around the child.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Anice asked.

Sarah sighed. “I haven’t given up hope of a miracle, but it’s looking like that’s what it will be if you survive this.”

Anice sniffled. “Orphans don’t have hope.”


	3. Chapter 3

It was the day that Sarah knocked over the shrine. Archimedes requested a meeting with Kain, and they met on a sunny patio with a fountain.

“Usually I would use this space to meet with vampires that I wanted to make uncomfortable,” Kain said, “but I suspect that it doesn’t have that affect on you.”

“I find it agreeable, thank you.” Archimedes settled on one of the lacquered chairs. “I know how your negotiation with Caldwell went. What is your goal for allowing him to try to bait Sarah?”

“Baiting is an offensive practice and I’m confident that Sarah will be able to resist her hunger for as long as it takes to prove its futility,” Kain said. “I also want to test the goddess that Sarah offended.”

“I apologize for interfering, but it will go badly enough to threaten the integrity of the Circle and Fortuna’s motives will not be made clear,” Archimedes said. “What I know isn’t my normal foresight, but a deliberate message about events that I will have lived through. Because of that, I need you to suppress my magic as much as you can until the changes settle. I can’t repair the damage if it kills me.”

Kain gazed at Archimedes skeptically. “You will need to tell me everything.”

“I think now that events are in motion, I can tell you what will happen, but others need to be kept ignorant until they have played their parts.” Archimedes pulled a piece of chalk out of his pocket dimension. “May I?”

With Kain’s consent, Archimedes began sketching a diagram on the paving stones. “I’ve already told everyone else that the young Guardians can’t be told about what is happening to Sarah and they’ve been moved to New Eden to prevent learning about it. In the previous timeline, Birney insisted on trying to help save her and him getting upset about it caused a storm. While it is sad that Bavol died and Birney had to assume his role before he was truly ready, the real tragedy is that you couldn’t hide that you assassinated Caldwell to save Sarah.”

Though Kain still had contempt for humanity, he realized that he had to take the values of the human Guardians into consideration. It was a small sacrifice to prevent a full revolt. “What other actions are you taking? More importantly, what outcome are you aiming for?”

“At the appropriate moment, Sarah will be ordered to extricate herself from the situation she got herself into. The full instructions include the reasons why she needs to break the rules she gave herself, though that still makes her free enough to try solutions that don’t involve mind-rape,” Archimedes said. “While it is useful that the mistress of mayhem can blithely alter events, it also makes it difficult to predict exactly what will happen when she does.”

Kain knew all too painfully that trying to alter events often came with dire consequences. Even after his ignition of a vampire genocide by assassinating William, he hadn’t left time alone. Though the events described in Blood Omen 2 were avoided, there were other setbacks. “I take it that trying to avoid the situation entirely would have led to a worse outcome?”

“I don’t know, and I didn’t want to take the risk. Trying to prevent this confrontation might have only delayed it and made it harder to control,” Archimedes said. “Honestly, even with perfect knowledge of the path we should avoid, I cannot guarantee that we are not creating a worse one.”

“Are those the only events that you are trying to change?” Kain asked.

Archimedes shook his head. “We are also going to have to let Sarah try to prepare Tanyanika. It is rare for Hylden to have telepathic powers, and she will be overwhelmed by her full abilities.”

Kain’s expression was thoughtful. “Nupraptor’s powers made him emotionally unstable even before Ariel’s death.” 

“Tanyanika will adapt. Letting Sarah help her is more about sparing her unnecessary hardship than preventing a disaster,” Archimedes said. “I would also like to intervene in a vampire matter. The black-ribboners are starting to view Sarah as a messiah.”

Kain scowled at Archimedes. “What is your intention?”

“Simply to offer advice,” Archimedes said. “The Destroyer can fade into unimportance if you let her, and that is what she will want to do once she learns how excited the black-ribboners got when she survived her brush with death in the other timeline.”

“I suspect that they would not react well if Sarah were forcibly removed,” Kain said. “Were you aware that it would be worse than what you showed me? Pockets of vampires who had never spoken to a black-ribboner, much less Sarah herself, would start living according to her message. Trying to warn them of the dangers just made some curious.”

“You adjusted the controls yourself, and I am just as surprised at this outcome as you are, though Ozker said that he could see it coming quite clearly. Keeping Sarah away from Nadzeya the moment you discovered the danger would have been a worse outcome,” Archimedes said. “Also, it seems that there are some vampires that can resist being changed. Hema noticed that Sarah has affected you and would attack her if given the chance.” He made another mark on his diagram, indicating when in the original timeline it happened.

“How did Ozker know what would happen?” Kain asked.

“Similar things have happened before, both here and on Earth. Studying the social impact of different religions is a hobby of his,” Archimedes said. “He’s not right all of the time, but he knows of a peaceful way to take the focus off of Sarah.”

“I never did trust Ozker, and I wonder if he planned for something like this to happen,” Kain said.

“Your paranoia is tiresome, but I appreciate that it’s not directed at me,” Archimedes said. “One lesson that I will have learned in the other timeline is that worrying about things that are beyond my control often leads to mistakes.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Chapter 11 of Whim of Fortuna

Despite how sleeping at night was unnatural for a vampire, having to hold still allowed Sarah to slip into a torpor. She was rudely awakened by someone poking the butt of a spear into her wing. She grabbed it and hissed with bared fangs. Anice whimpered as she crawled away in fright. The guard sneered as he tried to pull his spear back, and Sarah came to herself enough to release it.

“I told you that she hadn’t killed the girl in the night,” another guard said.

The rude one scowled. “Stay apart. We want to be able to tell the moment you kill her.”

“Not going to happen,” Sarah said.

The day wore on. People came and went, interested to see if the vampire was showing any signs of succumbing to base instincts.

Anice stood against the bars of the cage and began whimpering. “Please. I’m so thirsty. Help me.”

Sarah scanned the crowd. She was beginning to see that some were uncomfortable. She picked out a woman with a particularly pained expression. “You there. Get Caldwell and demand that he see this.”

An hour passed with no sign of the Head Chancellor. Anice ran out of energy to beg and sunk to the floor of the cage. Sarah scanned the crowd again. Some of them looked sick. She sat down on the floor of the cage, gazed at Anice, and tried to think of how to push the crowd harder. Then she found the answer and began singing One More Light. Sarah wasn’t a gifted singer, but she managed to keep her voice steady.

When she was finished, the crowd murmured, but the effect dissipated without any cries of rage sounding.

As the sun sunk toward the horizon, Anice’s breathing became unsteady. Sarah forced herself to listen, to feel the full effect of her actions. Then she heard a few voices yelling. Sarah looked up to see vempari flying, some of them dangling humans from their talons. The flock landed in front of the cage.

A few vempari yelled at the crowd about what was happening, and then one began speaking about the vempari’s history with the Elder Fraud.

Catullus had been carrying Radley, and they came straight to the cage. “Is she still alive?”

“Barely,” Sarah said.

Caldwell chose that moment to arrive. “What is the meaning of this?”

“This is wrong and we cannot ignore it,” Catullus said.

“Is Valeholm declaring war?” Caldwell asked.

“We are here without the consent of our leaders, though it would not be the first time we went to war over religion,” Catullus said. “Give us the child.”

“We cannot risk the wrath of Fortuna,” Caldwell said.

Catullus pulled a Hylden trail-ration out of his pocket dimension. “If I feed her, I own her? You’ll let me decide her fate?”

“We’ll let her out, and then you’ll go into the cage. She’d just be an orphan again.” Caldwell said. “You’re an adult, so no one can do the same for you. If you want this rule to apply to you, you have to follow the rest while in these walls, Catullus from Aschedorf.”

“I will name someone else that will be her parent if I die. Though rules or no, my mother would take exception to letting me be treated like you’ve treated this child,” Catullus said.

Radley snatched the ration from Catullus, broke off a piece, and tried to get Anice to wake up. Her eyes opened and she whimpered, but she didn’t look at him or open her mouth when Radley pushed the food to her lips. He used a finger to part her lips and tucked it into Anice’s cheek. “She’s yours, Catullus. I’ve already done things to try and help her.”

Catullus grabbed Anice through the bars and teleported away. Radley was thrown into the cage. The vempari were still lecturing the growing crowd, and there weren’t any laws forbidding being non-violently rowdy, so the guards could barely try to harass them into going away.

“Sorry it took so long,” Radley said as he sat down on the floor of the cage. “First I tried reasoning with the chancellors and I got fired. Then I rode as hard as I could to Valeholm and the horse died right as I got there.”

Sarah sat as well. “Hopefully it wasn’t too late. Her name is Anice.”

“You’re not mad that I threw away the gift you gave me?” Radley asked. “Extra years and happiness. Archimedes told me that I was supposed to die in a ditch years ago.”

“Mixed feelings, but the gift belonged to you. Trying to pass it to another is your right, as is becoming a martyr. I get irritated about people choosing to become martyrs,” Sarah said. “I didn’t expect them to want to kill me over a bit of outrage, but maybe I should have, considering the subconscious inspiration for it. I’m not going to go down easily. Unless they start feeding you, you’ll probably be dead before I get more than a little tempted.”

Radley still had the ration-bar in his hand, so he took a bite. “A little unpleasant for a last meal, assuming this is really food, but I’ve had worse. Archimedes said that you break Destinies, but maybe mine was really sturdy. I was supposed to starve or freeze, and now I will die of thirst.”

“I know of only one Destiny that was too powerful for me to stop,” Sarah said. “Much of what people attribute to destiny or luck is just seeing patterns in random things. I wish there were some pebbles around here so I could show you.” She looked around the courtyard. “Of course, the stars are coming out. Look.”

“Stars are random?” Radley asked.

“As random as thrown pebbles. More so because there was no will behind it, it just happened,” Sarah said.

Radley frowned. “Scattered without being thrown.”

“Like leaves falling on a pond,” Sarah said. “Unless there’s something like the squid that wants to take credit for doing that.”

“Some people believe that Fortuna made them,” Radley said.

Sarah shrugged. “Rather than debate about it, I want you to really look and tell me what you see.”

Radley gazed at the sky. “Like bits of glass from a dropped bottle. Except for that part. It looks like a bird.”

“The vempari call it ‘the one who flew too high’ but that’s the sort of thing I want you to look for,” Sarah said.

Radley pointed out several more constellations, Sarah naming each one. Radley stopped and said, “So it sounds like someone put them there.”

Sarah shook her head. “You’d be able to do the same thing if I did have a handful of pebbles. Humans recognize patterns. I don’t know what animals think about, but they probably do it too.”

“So what are you trying to get at?” Radley asked.

“It’s just weird that you managed to get yourself back into a similar situation to the one I saved you from,” Sarah said. “Sorry, but I’m not going to snap your neck just to be contrary.”

Radley frowned, but he couldn’t figure out how to respond to that.


	5. Chapter 5

Catullus appeared in Chixiksi and Ozker’s home with the girl from Letestadt. Normally he would have stopped to warn his Uncle that he was coming, but like earlier in the week, the situation was urgent. The girl he had saved was unconscious again, and he didn’t waste time trying to rouse her. Instead, he called out for Ozker and Chixiksi as he carried her deeper into the house to the medical room.

The two men seemed to be expecting him. Once Catullus set the girl on the table, he was shooed from the room. He wandered into the parlor, where he was surprised to see Archimedes sitting with Ribaki.

“What are you doing here?” Catullus asked his brother.

“I hate to worry you, but our uncle doesn’t want me to be alone as long as there is a chance that I’ll have another seizure,” Archimedes said.

Catullus shuddered at the memory of his adopted daughter screaming for him in fright as his brother convulsed on the ground. Having to grab him so he could teleport him here had been the worst of it. “You told me that you would be fine.”

Archimedes waved his hand in a calming manner. “There is only a chance that it will happen again. Time is in a fragile state right now and I just need you to trust me for the next day or so.”

Catullus rubbed his face and told Ribaki, “Usually I get hurt when I get tangled in one of his schemes.”

“I probably could have safely hidden this from you and let you play out your part in ignorance, but now that you know, all I need to do is make sure that you don’t second-guess yourself,” Archimedes said. “Once they save Anice, Uncle Ozker talk to you about how to calm down that rabble from Valeholm. Trust your gut, but as each group gets thrown out of Letestadt, they need to stay out of the fight for a while or they will get hurt.”

Catullus nodded wearily. “Yes, that sounds like what I would have done anyway. Aunt Sarah told me to focus on the girl because she wanted to stay a prisoner for a bit longer. Do you know enough about Fortuna to know if Sarah will survive this?” Catullus knew about Archimedes’ vision where Fortuna told him that Sarah was her plaything, but he also knew that angering a deity was not good for one’s health.

“I know what would happen unless I stop it, but I don’t know if Fortuna is helping, hindering, or ignoring Sarah. Sarah is going to continue this foolishness until she needs a deus ex machina to save her, and it’s going to come from Kain unless I get her to do it herself. It’s like that joke with the man in the flooding house.” Archimedes scowled and then saw that neither Catullus nor Ribaki knew what he was talking about.

_There was a man whose house was in the path of a flood, and the water was already to his porch. Some people came along in a cart, warned him, and offered him a ride to safety. He declined and said that his god would save him. Later that day, he was forced to climb onto his roof to avoid drowning. Some people came along in a boat and again he was offered a ride to safety. He declined again and said that his god would save him. As the waters rose enough that he had to stand on the peak of his house, some people came in a [hovering machine] and yelled at him to grab the rope they were lowering. Again he declined and said that his god would save him. Shortly after, he drowned. The dead man stood in the presence of his god and asked why he didn’t save him._

Ozker, who had been standing unnoticed in the doorway for about a minute, stole the punchline. “The god said, ‘I sent a cart, a boat, and a [hovering machine,] what more did you want?’” He strode into the room. “The girl is stable now, but she was beyond the capabilities of what could have been done in Letestat. Another hour or so, and there would have been nothing even we could do.”

Ozker had trained a handful of humans from Zuletat to be healers, and one of them had settled in Letestadt. While they knew some advanced theories, they could treat only the most basic of injuries and illnesses. Their skills were still considered phenomenal compared to what humans were used to.

“Thank you, Uncle,” Catullus said. “When Radley offered to trade his life for hers, I was afraid that he was doing it for nothing.”

“Radley and everyone else from Valeholm will escape tomorrow afternoon with a dozen orphans,” Archimedes said. “I’ll have been told that there wasn’t much of a plan, but that part of this mess went splendidly.”

“I have been thinking about what you told me earlier, and there is a possibility you didn’t consider about what Fortuna is doing,” Ozker said. “It could be that Fortuna decided to play with dispensing the worst good luck alongside the best bad luck. It reminds me of another joke.”

_There once was a man where for everything that happened in his life, he would say “I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.” His horse ran away, but the next day it returned with a herd of wild horses. His son broke his leg while trying to tame the horses, but the next day there was a conscription for a war, and the son was excused because of his leg._

“Is that another one from Earth?” Archimedes asked. At Ozker’s nod, he sighed. “Backwards planet treats its best wisdom as a source of humor. It shouldn’t be a wonder that it produced a bringer of chaos and a potentially crazy goddess.”

Catullus’ gaze grew distant for a moment. “Sarah is asking about Anice, and she says that there is a curfew in Letestadt.”

“Allow me.” Ozker concentrated a moment and then nodded. He then asked Catullus, “Have you considered how to keep Valeholm from getting out of hand?”

“I told them before we invaded that if we got violent or too forceful, then it would only strengthen Fortuna's hold on them,” Catullus said. “My plan is to remind them of that when we give them new news.”

Ozker nodded. “It’s simple, but it should work. Perhaps you should also tell them that there is a plan now, and that they might ruin it if they do anything without direction.”

“Thank you for reminding me. If there isn’t anything else, I think I should go back to Valeholm,” Catullus said.

Ribaki asked, “Could I go with you?”

It had been on Archimede’s suggestion, but Ribaki thought the reason was so that he could watch Catullus handle a crowd. The real reason was because Archimedes thought that giving the instructions to Sarah might trigger another seizure. Archimedes felt that it was bad enough that he had to use his niece and brother as the ones to notice the first one happening, but it had to be kept hidden from anyone else he had been near during the previous month.

Once they left, Ozker asked, “Is it time to tell Sarah what she needs to know?”

Archimedes shook his head. “Wait until Radley falls asleep.”

“You don’t look so good,” Ozker said.

“I feel like I’m running towards the edge of a cliff.” Archimedes bit his lip and took a deep breath. “If this harms me more than I’m expecting it to, if I’m unconscious and you don’t expect me to wake up, if it is the only way to heal me… turn me.”

Ozker frowned for a moment, but then nodded. “If something worse than that happens?”

Archimedes sighed. “If I die, let me stay dead. That will cause an imbalance that might kill Kain unless one of the young Guardians assume their role. You know it cannot be Tanyanika, but Grigori and Jahangir are both emotionally more mature than Birney.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Chapter 12 of Whim of Fortuna

There were cries of “Curfew! Curfew! Anyone without important business on the street needs to go home! That means you too, vempari!”

“Darnit,” Radley said. “There goes the forces of being properly outraged.”

“Just as well that they’re going before it causes a riot,” Sarah said. “Do you think people will be allowed back in the courtyard in the morning?”

“Probably,” Radley said. “It’s a bit pointless to keep us out here if no one can watch you savage me to death.”

Sarah pointed to a sheltered place on the wall. “Vampire witness to make sure they don’t illegally kill me.”

“It still could have been done quietly,” Radley said. “At least I won’t die in obscurity.”

“Are you willing to tell everyone your story, starting with stealing offerings? Leave out the part where I made you put the food back,” Sarah said.

“Why?” Radley asked.

“You were an offering thief that then got lucky,” Sarah said. “Back when I wasn’t even sure if Fortuna existed, I attributed it to mercifully getting rid of you, but now I know that she just does whatever she feels like at the time. She’s like a child.”

Radley frowned as he considered a thought. “Offering thieves don’t get lucky very often. Lately most of them get beaten.”

“Lately?” Sarah asked. “What changed?”

“I don’t know,” Radley said. “It’s not like I can ask them.”

“Because you’re not one of them anymore,” Sarah said. “You look like someone who would take a stick to them if you caught one.”

“Pretty much,” Radley said.

Sarah tried to stifle her laughter. “You might have a more accurate picture if you had bribed one to act as your lost point of view.”

“Of course. How can I forget how many times I got away without being seen?” Radley smacked himself in the head. “I was just wondering if Fortuna had a soft spot for children.”

Sarah considered. “I don’t know. Seeing children getting hurt pushes my berserk button, so naturally they get whatever help I can provide. I’m unaware of children who weren’t lucky enough for me to notice them. Though with Anice…” She reached out with her mind. “She’ll pull through.”

“How do you know?” Radley asked.

“Now that Catullus knows what’s going on, I figured that it was safe to contact him,” Sarah said.

“Caldwell is trying to bait you so he can kill you. Why didn’t you call for help yourself?” Radley asked.

“What did Catullus decide to do?” Sarah asked. “Why did you come back instead of staying in Valeholm?”

“Caldwell might not have let a vempari have Anice, especially not Catullus after what he did to Warrick. It’s a good thing I was here. Caldwell doesn’t back down even against a Guardian, though I’m unclear on the Circle not being allowed to get involved,” Radley said. “I see why you didn’t want to tell Catullus. If nothing else, his mother was furious. She only conceded to help because I told the whole village and got the invasion force worked up myself.”

“The Circle can’t get involved in the internal affairs of governments. What Archimedes does sometimes really bends those rules, but giving advice that can be ignored is allowed. Depending on what Keturah did, she might not be in trouble,” Sarah said.

“Teleporting us a few minutes’ flight from the walls, but also telling me that Anice was still alive when I got to Valeholm,” Radley said. “Wait, can’t you teleport? You were able to do it for me.”

“I could have. I still could if I were willing to face the consequences.” Sarah sighed. “I overestimated these people. I was hoping that they had enough decency to realize that they were watching a child die. By the time I realized that they would just stand and watch… it would just cement their attitude if I let them know that it was a trick.”

“Then Anice almost dying…” Radley frowned.

“I am a monster that was letting it happen. Go ahead and hate me for it,” Sarah said. “Knowing what I do now, even that she would survive, I might have given up instead of putting it into your hands. She suffered, and now you are going to suffer.”

“Why are you doing this?” Radley asked.

“When it started, I just wanted them to realize that being afraid of Fortuna is silly. She’s as unappeasable as death, though not worthy of so much fear. Wouldn’t it be nice if orphans could openly take her offerings?” Sarah tapped her talon as she thought. “Now… I’m not sure what I’m doing. Placing myself at the mercy of Fortuna is different for me because I’m her favorite plaything and she will protect me for as long as she finds it amusing to do so. But maybe I’m just being stubborn because that idiot Caldwell pissed me off.”

“No one likes Caldwell, at least not people who have gotten on his bad side,” Radley said. “If there was a way for me to survive this, I’d be happy to help annoy him.”

“I don’t want to give you false hope,” Sarah said.

It was time for the guards to change shifts. One of the relief said, “Caldwell has the next one lined up. Someone from Aschedorf tripped a guard who was chasing an offering thief.”

“Can he do that?” a guard asked. Tripping a guard wasn’t punishable by death, and even outright attacking one wasn’t fatal unless the assailant couldn’t be subdued any other way. In addition, humans from other cities were shown leniency when they broke laws that didn’t exist in their hometowns.

“Anything to avert Fortuna’s wrath,” the relief said.

Sarah said, “Good, it wasn’t Meldon.”

“That bigot stayed behind,” Radley said.

“He’s not a bigot, he’s a spy, and I just commended him on not blowing his cover,” Sarah said. “Well, I prefer to think of him as an early warning in case things stop being peaceful in Valeholm.”

“A human perspective,” Radley said.

“Someone who walks among them, trusted enough to know things that they would keep hidden from people like you,” Sarah said.

“Does the Circle have secret agents everywhere?” Radley asked.

“You two are the only ones I know about,” Sarah said. “I was openly a servant, but I’ve had to do some things that don’t quite fit the job description. You could say that I’m a secret agent under the guise of being a regular agent.”

“Is this part of a plot by the Circle?” Radley asked.

Sarah shook her head. “This is just me. Chixiksi can’t do anything, Kain won’t, Keturah came close to overstepping her bounds already, and that leaves Archimedes. He might be able to do a little to help me, but my nature blinds him. Everyone else is too young to assume their Guardianship. I don’t know anyone who can help. Hopefully the vampires I know have been ordered not to try, so that leaves me with allies I haven’t met.”

“Are you always this optimistic?” Radley asked.


	7. Chapter 7

In Valeholm, the first thing Catullus did was to visit his mother. She ran out onto the porch and hugged him so tightly that he thought that she would squeeze the life from his body.

Keturah began shaking and asked, “Why do I keep letting you do things like this?”

“Mom, please.” Catullus squirmed until she shifted to holding him at arm’s length. “I’m not the type of person who ignores what needs to be done, and neither are you. I helped saved a life tonight.”

“I saw. It’s just…” Keturah sniffled. “That man might have decided to just kill you.”

“I don’t think that Caldwell is that stupid,” Catullus said.

Keturah gave a forced smile. “So does this mean you have another mouth to feed?” She had already taken in two grandchildren because Catullus’ family had grown too large for even four adults to handle.

“I thought that I was losing a friend at the time, but Radley will survive this,” Catullus said. “That law is also open to a very broad interpretation. Some consider that it means an orphan is only your hired hand for as long as you’re willing to feed them. Unless I am misunderstanding, Caldwell did not need to give full parental rights to someone who offered a mere mouthful of food.”

Keturah frowned, but before she replied, a vempari came to a recklessly fast landing in front of her house.

It was Otik, and he said, “Please help. Some of the flock scattered before I could tell them. The leader is going to order his guards to shoot any vempari that tries to go back into Letestadt.”

“I’ll find them and make sure that they know,” Keturah said. “Thank you for telling me.”

Otik gave a small, formal bow. “Thank you, Guardian.”

“Shall I make you some stimulant tea?” Catullus asked his mother.

Keturah shook her head. “It shouldn’t take long to retrieve them all if you can stay to tell them what’s going on.”

True to her word, it took less than an hour to retrieve the stragglers from the flock and warn the entire village that Letestadt was more hostile than usual to vempari. A few vempari with family in Carthage relayed the warning to them as well. The mood was somber and after a few more warnings from Catullus, everyone quietly dispersed save for a few humans.

Those humans were the families of an invasion force that had been left behind when the vempari were chased from Letestadt. Catullus and his two fourteen-year olds, Lysander and Vianne, were able to cast simple viewing spells to look for the lost relatives. 

There was a space where poor planning of buildings had left one where the only entrance was a long corridor almost too narrow for a person to squeeze through. One young woman had found it and the pack of orphans that used it for shelter. While the observers couldn’t tell what she was saying, the orphans were clearly interested.

One old woman gasped “Wesley” as she saw that he was being held in a cage.

“All hope is not lost,” Catullus murmured. He remembered that his brother had mentioned that everyone from Valeholm would escape.

Archimedes was sitting quietly and focusing on his breath. He was scared, but the emotion felt distant. 

Ozker had told Sarah to whisper to him when Radley was asleep, so there was nothing to do but wait until he got the message. “He’s asleep. Shall I tell her, or do you want to try?”

“I’ll do it,” Archimedes said as he reached out with his mind. “Sarah, I want you to listen to me carefully. I am going to give you a script for tomorrow, and you must follow it exactly until you see Caldwell again. Because of the nature of how I got this knowledge, it is dangerous for you to change anything before the moment that I have chosen.”

Sarah was too distant to project a mental space, but Archimedes felt her take what he offered. It included what she was supposed to do the next day, the knowledge that Birney would not be there to help her this time, and Archimedes’ memory of watching as Kain cast a spell on a woman who then strangled Caldwell. There was also a message from her future self that included ideas on what to do, including a directive to use mind control if Caldwell would not see reason.

There was a pause, and Sarah said, “Thank you for giving me the night to come to try to come to terms with this. I don’t think that I can avoid harming Caldwell, but you’ve shown me the futility of continuing this fight.”

Archimedes withdrew from the mental connection and sat quietly. His hands trembled, but it was from fear. “I can’t always trust her, but if she does what I want her to, I should be fine until tomorrow.”

“You should try to get some rest,” Ozker said. “Come, you can borrow Ribaki’s room.”

After getting Archimedes settled in, Ozker went to see how the patient was doing. Chixiksi looked up as Ozker entered the room. “She’s improving, but something occurred to me. Someone from Letestadt might not react well if she woke up to this.” Chixiksi gestured to his face.

Ozker gave a small smile despite how seriously he took the situation. “I know a few people in Aschedorf who should be willing to help.”

In the predawn hours, at the shrine that had been re-erected after Sarah knocked it over, everything was still. Then there was a flutter of cloth as the blindfold slipped from the statue of Fortuna, seemingly of its own accord. This had not happened in the timeline that Archimedes had risked his health and life to avoid.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Chapter 13 of the Whim of Fortuna

The next morning saw the usual amount of people milling around.

Radley woke up and stretched. “I’ve gotten too used to sleeping in a proper bed.”

Then four guards escorted a frail-looking Hylden into the courtyard. He was stopped several meters from the cage, and he announced, “The child is alive and will recover to full health.”

Sarah gave the Hylden gesture for ‘thank you’ and the Hylden was escorted back out of the city.

The crowd began to build, but the vempari didn’t come back.

“I figured that we would lose the support of Valeholm,” Sarah said.

“I see a few familiar faces from there,” Radley said.

“Those sneaky devils,” Sarah said. “Have the humans slip away and blend in while everyone else is worried about the vempari.”

“I’m not a politician, but I’ve picked up a few tricks, though we didn’t have a plan beyond that.” Radley smiled. “A few of them even know about my old haunts, but I didn’t think about trying to recruit orphans and the invasion might have a problem getting ahold of food since they don’t usually carry money.”

“If Valeholm wasn’t so far away, tempting orphans to try and get there would be a good thing. Maybe if there was…” Sarah tried to think of a local replacement for underground railroad. “If we could set up some sort of system to help them survive the journey, it would be better than what they face here, right?”

“We’re stuck in a cage,” Radley said.

“I’ve already sent a message to someone who can try to do something about it,” Sarah said.

“Then I’ll tempt them,” Radley said. “Not many would try it because of the vampires outside the walls, despite the truce. But once it’s safe, someone can start telling them how to save themselves.”

“I wish I’d had the idea before getting into this mess,” Sarah said. “I would have left this city to its stupidity if it wasn’t hurting children.”

“Something about berserk? I think you do care. You risked Anice for everyone else,” Radley said.

"I almost let her die without mentioning that there was another option, so don't think of my actions as noble,“ Sarah said.

“Archimedes once asked me if I would poison someone for the greater good," Radley said. "I said that it depended on who it was, and he dropped the subject.”

"Depending on how long ago that was… Several years ago, he asked me if I would murder Caldwell for him. Fortunately, he can’t expect me to follow evil orders and I hope he was just blowing off steam,” Sarah said. “You know about Birney.”

“Enough details to get the picture.” Radley said. “Archimedes told me that being the Time Guardian means that he can’t follow normal people ethics.”

“That doesn’t mean that he can just do what he wants. He has rules, some of them painful,” Sarah said. “Something like killing Caldwell would require convincing the rest of the Circle that Caldwell’s life was threatening the integrity of the Pillars, and he did use the word murder instead of assassinate when asking me. I would have to be convinced that there was no other way if he wanted me to assassinate someone.”

“What if what you’re doing here leads to Caldwell’s death?” Radley asked.

“It won’t be my hand that kills him,” Sarah said. “I will have to answer for it, just not as legitimate prey of Letestadt.”

“You said something about not liking willing martyrs,” Radley said.

“The choice irritates me,” Sarah said. “Liking the person who makes it is regardless of that. I wish Catullus would calm down, but he’s just not built that way. He sees something wrong and wants to dive right in.”

“I wonder where he gets it from,” Radley remarked dryly. “I’ve been trying to think of what I want to say when I tell my story. After meeting you, my life has had its ups and downs, but maybe I shouldn’t mention the downs.”

“Don’t make it sound idyllic. Just try to cast a positive spin on what did go wrong. The horse didn’t die until you got where you were going,” Sarah said. “You’re in this cage because you chose to trade your life for Anice, and now she’s the lucky one.”

“Actually, considering how the vempari view religion, perhaps it’s a good thing that I didn’t seem that lucky,” Radley said. “They might have feared me if they thought I had brought Fortuna with me.”

“I think that might work,” Sarah said. “If Fortuna was like the squid, these people would be in actual danger.”

“One question. What were you doing in that alley?” Radley asked.

“I wanted to see the shrine,” Sarah said. “Frame it as curiosity instead of wondering if Fortuna was a threat.”

The high-tide of the crowd happened in the afternoon, so that’s when Radley decided to speak.

Everyone listen. I want to tell you why I decided to trade my life for Anice’s. Years ago, I was an orphan like her, and hungry enough to steal offerings from Fortuna’s shrines. One evening, I was seen stealing, and I ran into an alleyway to avoid getting beaten. This vampire was standing there, curious about the shrine, and I ran right into her. She brought me to Valeholm, and gave me to a family whose son had been taken by a vampire. They raised me like their own.

My luck was somewhat normal while living in Valeholm. The vempari used to worship a malevolent entity posing as a god, and they might have treated me with something other than pity if Fortuna still had her hand on me. They’re good people, and wouldn’t let an orphan starve. I know many in Valeholm that didn’t have parents, and there are people whose job is to take care of them.

I came back here because I wanted to learn about Fortuna. I was taking notes, Chancellor Meldon saw, and he decided he wanted me as clerk. I would not have gotten an education here, assuming I survived at all. After my luck changed, mine was a good life, but now Anice has a chance to have what I did. I just couldn’t stand by and watch her die. Now I’m going to die of thirst in a futile attempt to bait a vampire. Sarah’s nice, and you’re going to see a lot more wasted lives if this continues.

Radley stared at the crowd, and then a voice shouted, “It sounds like he got lucky.” He recognized her from Valeholm.

The crowd began to murmur about an offering thief being favored. Then an older man started shouting, “Let him go! He’s received the blessing of Fortuna! We might anger her if we don’t let him go!”

Sarah stood and shouted, “I tried to tell you that Fortuna doesn’t mind orphans taking her offerings.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an alteration of a chapter from The Whim of Fortuna. No more copy-paste, time is about to get its wedgie.

Due to Radley’s speech and the first voices that pointed out that he was lucky, the crowd was working into an uproar when Caldwell came. “Calm down! Fortuna can have him!”

The guards hesitated. “How do we keep the vampire from getting out?”

Sarah walked to the side of the cage opposite the door. “I promise not to do anything reckless, but you can manacle me to the bars if you want.”

Radley was let out, and a new person was put into the cage. Radley knew who it was, and how shy he was several years ago. “What crime did he commit to deserve this?”

“He helped an offering thief,” Caldwell said.

Radley nodded and turned to the crowd. “This is Wesley of Valeholm. In his town, the punishment for helping a minor thief escape is a stern talking-to. Legally, he should be shown leniency, or equal to a citizen, just face a portion of the thief’s punishment… which should mean just being hit a few times. He does not deserve a slow and painful death. Killing either of these people might not be what Fortuna wants.”

“This vampire knocked over a shrine. However, I will find bait that has nothing to do with Fortuna,” Caldwell said. “Are there any more rabble-rousers from Valeholm here?” Radley answered by refusing to answer, so Caldwell said, “Any citizen of Valeholm is no longer welcome here. Like the vempari, you will be shot if you trespass.”

Just then, a dozen children rushed to the cage. They carried apples in their hands and showed them to Sarah. “Save us too. We want to go someplace where we won’t starve.” Sarah didn’t know where they got the apples, but she did recognize them as a symbol of Discordia.

“I’m trapped in a cage so I can’t help you,” Sarah said. “Radley, are you going back to Valeholm?”

Radley nodded. “Come on. It’s a long walk, but hopefully Fortuna will keep us from meeting any feral vampires.”

Caldwell glared as the citizens of Valeholm gathered to depart. Sarah reached out to Keturah, and learned that she was already watching. As soon as the group was away from the city, they would be teleported to Valeholm. Sarah was tempted to ask Keturah to take them directly from the city as a show of power, but she felt that it would hurt a different plan that relied on trickery. Keturah already knew the location of an old wishing-well with a hoard of coins, and making them rain on the city was low on the list of actions that Sarah wanted to happen, but it might have been needed.

Sarah quietly said to Caldwell, “I know that you don’t actually believe in Fortuna, but your citizens do. I can make these people believe that I have her blessing, and if you continue to try and kill me, it will go very badly for you.”

“What could you possibly do?” Caldwell asked.

“If we’re including me calling in a few favors, quite a lot,” Sarah said. “Perhaps we should have this conversation in private.”

“I’m not taking the risk of moving you,” Caldwell said. “Besides, it should not take too long to find new bait.”

Sarah shrugged. “Very well. Has anyone told you about the one vampires call the Destroyer?”

“Only rumors and speculation. The only thing I’m willing to believe is that there are stories being told about it,” Caldwell said. “If there was a creature that could kill vampires with just the sound of its voice, I would love to get my hands on it.”

“Many of the stories are overblown, but I’ve never heard one that was so far from the truth before.” Sarah suppressed the urge to laugh. “As far as I know, the common legend among the vampires is that there is a green-eyed Razielim that can make a vampire lose their savagery just by talking to them, but even that is a wild exaggeration.”

Caldwell suddenly remembered that Sarah had let him have hints about that over the years. He leaned in with interest, drawing dangerously close to the bars of the cage. “How do you do it?”

“Deep down, most vampires are humans with some extra instincts. Your own power comes from how malleable people can be,” Sarah said. “If my audience is receptive to it, I can be quite persuasive. It was quite the stroke of luck that Radley got thrown in here with me. He managed to give me a particularly good opening to the ones that believe in Fortuna.”

Caldwell drew back and gazed at the courtyard. There were a few people still milling around and staring curiously, but much of the crowd had dissipated due to there being no bait to watch being killed. “I think you lost that opening.”

“You do know these people better than I do, Head Chancellor, so you could be right. I’m used to working with more patient creatures, and the opportunity that I think will arise with the next temptation might not happen,” Sarah said. “If that is the case, I will have to resort to more drastic means.”

“Frankly, I think you’re bluffing,” Caldwell said.

“You once asked me if Archimedes could have you assassinated in your sleep. I know people that could make you drop dead, or worse, in front of witnesses, and without raising suspicion from your citizens,” Sarah said. “I hope it doesn’t come to that. I imagine Birney and Sherrod love you just as much as you love them. I’d rather find a way for you to look good when you let me go.”

Caldwell gazed contemplatively at Sarah. He had known for years that she was clever enough to rule in her own right, but instead was content to serve as an advisor. He had even accepted some of her advice, but it was only because he could not find impure motivations behind it. “What are you after?”

“I admit that I was being impulsive when I started this fight, but I hope I won the minor battle of not making orphans suffer if they get caught stealing Fortuna’s offerings. Also, until we know what Fortuna is, we don’t want to let her get too strong of a hold on people.” Sarah bowed her head in thought. “In this moment, I’m willing to sacrifice the progress I’ve made against Fortuna to get out of this cage, and it’s partly for Birney’s benefit. I don’t care if you gain more power over your people in the process.”

Caldwell narrowed his eyes. “What do you propose?”

“Visit the shrine to Fortuna and stay there for at least ten minutes. Then come back and let me out,” Sarah said. “I’ll arrange for a sign that Fortuna is pleased with your decision.”

Caldwell had been about to argue about it, or maybe laugh at her efforts to get free, but then he nodded and headed for the shrine. Sarah watched him go and thought to herself, ‘I really didn’t want to do that to you.’

After Caldwell visited the shrine, he came back and said, “Release the vampire. If Fortuna is angry at her, then she can punish her.”

The cage door was opened, and Sarah slowly walked out. “I do owe you a favor and an apology, but it will have to wait.” With that, Sarah launched into the air and flew away from the city. 

Caldwell stood for a moment, wondering what sort of sign Sarah had arranged, but then he frowned as he realized that he had fallen for a trick.

As she flew away from Letestadt, Sarah reached out to Ozker, who had told her that he was taking care of Archimedes. She didn’t understand enough to know what sort of risk Archimedes had actually taken, but she feared the worst.

“It’s not good,” Ozker said telepathically. “He was in agony before he passed out, and now… I’ve called others who are more knowledgeable than myself about magic.”

“I’m on my way, though I’m not sure what I can do to help.” Sarah flew for another moment before landing and teleporting.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the delay. I had to rewrite this a gadzillion times and there might be some non-linear chapters involved.

As the sun rose over New Eden, a crisp breeze ruffled the trees. Years ago, Finneas had allowed Hardegin to build a hunting cabin in his territory, a practical consideration for how didn’t want to constantly be hosting mortals in his main home. For instance, sometimes the young Guardians liked cooked meals when they were training, and Finneas did not want to live with a kitchen when he did not have a personal use for one. It was the morning after Sarah escaped from the cage in Letestadt, and the four young Guardians were just finishing the breakfast that Hardegin had prepared.

Jahangir said, “Being out here for more than a weekend is fun, but I wonder how much longer it will be.”

Hardegin shrugged. “You know Archimedes. It’s not like him to tell anyone more than he has to.”

Birney was pensive. “Ellette said that he collapsed just before we had to come here. What if it’s something that will come after us next?”

Hardegin narrowed his eyes in thought. “It will do no good to worry when he won’t tell us exactly what’s going on.”

They did not have to wait long for their answer. It was the following evening when Keturah and Catullus arrived. 

Keturah trembled slightly, her wings mantled over her shoulders as if trying to block out a chill breeze. “I don’t know the full story yet, but Archimedes did something with his powers and it looks like it nearly killed him. He’s awake now, but he was cursed in order to heal him.”

There was a moment of shock from everyone in the room, then Birney asked, “That also means that he can be cured, doesn’t it?”

“I imagine so,” Catullus said. “I didn’t speak with him directly, but he wants you to know that he gave his permission for Ozker to save his life with it.”

“Can I see Archimedes?” Birney asked.

Catullus shook his head. “He doesn’t have control over his instincts yet.”

“The ones who designed the Pillars were irresponsible, and that’s ignoring what they were for,” Tanyanika said. “Or were they meant to kill a Guardian who uses their power inappropriately?”

Keturah’s cheeks flushed. “I wasn’t there at the time of the binding, and I don’t know exactly what Archimedes was trying to do, but the architects probably had carponus e donadi in mind. Any one of us might be called on to exceed our limits for the greater good.”

Hardegin and Jahangir exchanged a glance. They were both prepared to restrain the two women if they started seriously fighting, not that they had ever gotten beyond shouting before.

“I don’t understand Time very well, but I think I know what Archimedes was trying to do,” Catullus said. “He usually can’t predict events surrounding Sarah, but this time he spoke like he could. I think he was trying to change something, but he had said once a significant event has happened, it should not be altered.”

“I can’t imagine that he didn’t know what it might do to him.” Keturah scowled. “The question is whether or not it was truly worth it.”

“I think that he felt that it was, though I don’t know why he didn’t stop the current turmoil from happening,” Catullus said. “Birney, Sarah desecrated Fortuna’s main shrine in Letestadt. Caldwell tried to have her executed over it, but she’s safe for now. She’s sorry for what trouble her lapse in judgement might cause for you. Another thing that happened was that Valeholm got involved when we learned what was happening. I hate to speak ill of your birthplace, but they were letting a child be used as bait and she nearly died of thirst. The only thing the girl had done was try to steal from the shrine.”

“I was afraid something like this could happen, but Archimedes assured me that the risk was manageable when I asked him about it,” Birney said. “I don’t know everything about my father’s political games, but I guessed that if he can’t get directly at the person he hates, he would be willing to hurt people associated with that person. I’m sure he believed that Sarah was just Archimedes’ servant, but he was probably waiting for an excuse to kill her.” Birney bowed his head. “Did my father know about the child?”

“It was his orders,” Catullus said. “I understand how upsetting this can be for you.”

Birney nodded. “You barely acknowledge that you had a father beyond him being terrible.”

“I didn’t meet him until I was almost ten, and a few years later I wish I hadn’t,” Catullus said. “Perhaps I should have told you more about what my father was like, but I didn’t want to poison your perceptions of your own father if what we were seeing was only our biases. I told you how to ask for help if you needed it.”

“It’s not that I’m ungrateful that I got to be away from the parts of it I hate, but he is my father,” Birney said. “Besides, it wasn’t unbearable, and he would have made everyone’s life more difficult if he didn’t get his way.”

“That should not have been your burden,” Keturah said. “Caldwell also threatened Catullus and it’s only for your sake that I haven’t made him regret it.”

“I’m sorry,” Birney said. “Are there amends that I can make on his behalf?”

Keturah shook her head. “Just know that if he angers me further, I may not be able to restrain myself.”

“I probably should have mentioned this sooner, but Sarah is using me to listen in on the conversation,” Catullus said. “She just told me that she doesn’t want to hurt Caldwell, but she’s willing to literally make him feel regret for his actions and she thinks it would be better for everyone including him.”

“How can she not want to hurt him after all that?” Birney asked. “She must at least be mad that he tried to have her executed.”

Catullus’ thoughtful expression deepened for a moment, then he frowned. * It was another minute before he said, “She often has a low opinion of the Head Chancellor’s behavior, but she refuses to dislike the man. She phrased it as her hating him would make him stronger, but I think she meant that she would become weak against him.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Anger should have made her stronger,” Tanyanika said.

Catullus held up a hand. “I’m not going to serve as a relay for this conversation.”

Tayanika pouted, but Jahangir said, “It’s obvious. An angry opponent is sloppy. Stay calm and you have a better chance of victory.”

Grigori said, “That’s physical combat.”

“Works for political games, too, though you still have a chance to get stabbed if you try it,” Birney said. “From what my father says, Sarah sounds like she’s not that good. She loses most of the time and doesn’t get anything valuable when she does win. But when my father tried to make me stay with him when I was nine, Archimedes got mad that Sarah refused to cheat.”

“She’ll explain as soon as she’s dealt with some problems that have cropped up. She also doesn’t want to deliberately mess with him until she can give it her full attention,” Catullus said. “Getting Caldwell to let her go was the first time she used her magic beyond reading his mind.”

* Sarah had laughingly told Catullus that she liked Caldwell despite him doing terrible things, which earned her a feeling of confused dismay. Sarah then explained that if she hated an enemy, it gave them the power to hurt her even if they weren’t there to actively do it, but having unflinching compassion for an enemy made them into a ridiculous insect. Catullus then wondered about physical harm, and Sarah pointed out that Caldwell was just a man and she could squish him like a bug… metaphorically. It was Keturah who had magic that was suited for doing it literally. Catullus then composed a more diplomatic phrasing and asked Sarah if he could just say that.


	11. Chapter 11

The discussion didn’t get much further until Catullus had to leave with the excuse that both he and Sarah had other things to do that night. Tanyanika was sensitive to moods, especially those of her fellow Guardians, and requested that they have some valerian tea. Keturah declined that but said she would drink a tea with a weaker affect. While it was brewing, Jahangir took Birney outside for a sparring match, explaining that it was what he liked to do after he got mad at his father for voicing his [old-fashioned intolerances.]

“I’d suggest doing the same, but I’m not as young as I used to be,” Hardegin told Keturah.

Keturah gave a pained chuckle. “Did you ever have to watch a loved one get old while you stayed the same?”

Hardegin shook his head. “I never saw them again. Vorador had human servants, but I wasn’t that interested in them.”

“You’re lucky,” Keturah said. “When I hold my grandson, I keep feeling like I adopted him to replace Catullus.”

Birney came back inside with a guilty look, followed by Jahangir. The young Conflict Guardian was clutching his upper arm, though the beginnings of a bruise were showing higher than where he was gripping. Hardegin could see immediately that it was probably broken. He resisted the urge to call on Ozker, realizing that the Circle’s physician probably had his hands full, and instead grabbed the first aid kit. Like many good soldiers, he knew how to patch up a comrade.

Grigori looked up from his book as Birney sat down. “Are you certain that anger is weakness?”

“Don’t antagonize him.” Tanyanika growled as she set the tray with steaming mugs down.

Birney took a sip. “I’m trying to calm down, but I’m sorry this is affecting you so badly.”

Tanyanika shook her head. “It’s not just you. I really want to properly meet my predecessor and it sounds like she almost got herself killed in a fit of [dumbassery.] At least I got to learn a little more about her.”

“You want to know more about her?” Keturah’s tea had been left in the kitchen-area for her to retrieve herself, and she clutched the mug with both talons. “This isn’t the first time Sarah put herself at risk when she didn’t need to. This also isn’t the first time my sons have followed her example. I know it’s unfair that the others could talk to their predecessors when you had to hear about yours second-hand, but once I had seen what she did to my boys, I was against it happening again.”

Tanyanika reeled as if struck. “But what about duty?”

Keturah took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm. “I left the past as a [pincushion] that accepted that it would cause my return to the Wheel, but hers is a foolishness that goes beyond that. She doesn’t stop to think, doesn’t even seem to realize that she’s taking a risk. Even after the fact, only Archimedes seems to have any comprehension of being in danger and still he keeps disregarding his own safety in defiance of his duty. I know that they can see it in each other.”

Tanyanika was thoughtful. “Do you know much about where she came from? Archimedes complained about her alien philosophy, but I thought he was just talking about ethics. What if there is something about her culture that makes them act like that?”

“Chixiksi and Ozker would know,” Keturah said. “I saw glimpses of that world and it was intolerably strange, but they have a strong understanding of it.”

“I would like to talk to them,” Tanyanika said. “Do we have to stay here much longer?”

“Perhaps Birney shouldn’t return to Valeholm right away, but apparently the rest of you were here simply to conceal how he was the one who needed to remain ignorant of events until they were over,” Keturah said.

“I’m willing to keep you company,” Grigori offered.

“That means you can help each other catch up on your missed schoolwork,” Keturah said. “I’ll send what you need.”

Grigori couldn’t hide his disappointment, but Birney just chuckled at him.

Tanyanika yawned. “I should at least wait until I sleep off this tea. It’s not like they’re allowed to tell me much.”

“There is one thing that I hate to tell you,” Keturah said. “Sarah is no longer forbidden from speaking to any of you. The main reason she hasn’t yet is because she doesn’t want to meet you when she’s so distracted. She knows that she sounds like a moonling even under ideal conditions, but she has to put great effort into remaining coherent when under stress.”

Tanyanika stared in shock. “Did I hear that right? I’ll get to meet her before assuming my Guardianship?”

“Archimedes insisted on it,” Keturah said.

Grigori frowned. “But Lorica says that Sarah is dangerous. Her clan cast her out because she wanted to destroy them.”

“That came over a decade later, and it’s an ugly story. At the time, Sarah leaving the clan was an amicable parting because they couldn’t tolerate how different she was,” Keturah said. “However, Sarah should leave you alone if you tell her that you’re uncomfortable with talking to her.”

Birney turned to Tanyanika and said, “You’re trembling.”

“I guess I’m excited, and a bit nervous,” Tanyanika said.

“You should be nervous after what Keturah said,” Jahangir said. “It sounds like she might make you crazy.”

“She’s like a shilen’tvork, but I’ve been trained in how to deal with them,” Tanyanika said.

She was met with confused looks, including from Jahangir as he questioned why a nerd would need to know ways to restrain someone without hurting them. The warrior-caste were an unimaginative group that weren’t affected by what crazy-makers tended to do or say, but they were responsible for containing them if they got too disruptive.

Tanyanika explained, “It literally means crazy-maker, but they’re people who occasionally decide to say and do weird things to challenge expectations and fight against stagnation. It’s to prompt people to think about what they think they know, to not blindly accept what they assume to be true. The training is about not being [confused into incapacitation] by it.”

Hardegin demanded, “Do you know how to deal with someone who does it as their primary occupation?”

Tanyanika shook her head. “Most of them don’t even consider it a proper hobby.”

Hylden didn’t have many rude words that were taboo, though Tanyanika tended to use foul language too often when she was feeling prickly and Jahangir had needed correction to stop saying words unfit for mixed company. Hardegin let out a string of words that made both of them stare in shock. Keturah only recognized a few words that she learned during the war and had to resist the urge to smack Hardegin on principle.

Hardegin finally recovered enough to say, “I need to speak with Chixiksi, now. Come on, Jahangir, he knows how to use a bone-mender.”

After they had teleported away, Birney said, “That makes me nervous.”


	12. Chapter 12

When Sarah was done listening through Catullus as he spoke to the young Guardians, she reached out to Ozker to see how he was holding up with his new fledgling. He didn’t bother to put the reply into proper words, but the mood was disgruntled and weary. Sarah conveyed that she was coming to help. Ozker was on the roof of Archimedes’ apartment in Aschedorf, but Sarah could feel that he was psychically keeping track of Archimedes. She nodded a greeting and went inside.

Archimedes was brooding on the couch in his living room, his knees drawn to his chest. Though he usually wore at least one layer of robes even at home, he was in just the tunic and simple pants that usually served as the first layer. The physical changes hadn’t properly begun yet, save for his fangs coming in. He grimaced as he explored them with his tongue.

“How are you doing?” Sarah asked.

Archimedes didn’t turn towards her. “Saying that this is unpleasant would be putting it mildly.”

“It’s probably not as bad as being born the first time.” Sarah folded her wings and perched on the couch. “Ozker says that he had trouble getting you to feed.”

Archimedes’ expression softened. “I just don’t see why I have to take it directly from the veins.”

There were many reasons why feeding a fledgling directly for the first few days was preferable. Other than unproven superstitions about the sire’s blood producing a stronger vampire, there were practical matters. Fledglings needed a lot of blood, and it was easier to meet those needs precisely if they could take it from the source. If Ozker had needed to hunt for himself instead of getting donations from Catullus’ family and friends, he would have needed to drain at least one person every night.

Instead of explaining that, Sarah said. “You don’t need to be afraid of enjoying it.”

“I didn’t expect my feelings for him to be this intense.” Archimedes hunched his shoulders. “I can’t afford to care about anyone this much.”

Sarah reached out and drew Archimedes into a hug. He flinched as he had done since he was old enough to realize that it put him within biting range of a predator. His body was slow to give up its mortal warmth, so Sarah still felt cool to him, but he wasn’t bothered by it as he had been. Archimedes didn’t draw away, but he asked, “What are you doing?”

“I suspect that you don’t get enough of these,” Sarah said. “You can’t keep pushing people away just because you might have to choose between them and your duty.”

Archimedes relaxed into her embrace. “I didn’t want this. I knew the risk I was taking, and it had to be done, but I…” He curled inward and began sobbing.

Sarah simply held him and tried to comfort him. In a way, all fledglings were like children, even those that could remember their mortal lives. There was a newness to their experience and learning how to cope would come with practice.

Archimedes eventually calmed and lay still for several minutes. Then he wiped his face and grimaced at how his tears had changed viscosity. “I know that I can’t risk being cured right away, not until I’m sure that I’ve repaired all of the damage we did to Time, but I hate this. Maybe I should just seal myself in the Time-cave and have you bring me food until I’m ready to be cured.”

“Been there done that and it is not fun. Ozker wasn’t the only one who self-mutilated while caged, I just didn’t do it for long enough to scar,” Sarah said. “Do you intend to brood the entire time that you’re a vampire?”

Archimedes pulled away. “Why shouldn’t I? It will only be a few years and I don’t see anything good in it.”

Sarah shrugged. “What do you have to gain? Why not try to be the type of vampire that you would be if this were permanent?”

Archimedes asked, “What if I do something that I can’t come back from?”

Sarah asked, “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Archimedes remembered Sarah being matter of fact about forgetting just how many people she killed, and how hundreds was a conservative estimate. Then there was… “Do you remember why I was angry at you?”

Sarah nodded and said, “That was a mistake, and possibly due more to who I am than what I am. If you do something like that… The potential would have been part of you, and you would just be using the curse as an excuse.”

Archimedes shook his head. “Don’t give me that black-ribboner propaganda.”

“I am being as genuine as I can, and that I’ll go along with trying to destroy that is only because it needs to be done,” Sarah said.

Archimedes sighed. “I know what you wear on the surface isn’t real, but I’ve never been able to figure out if you’re good or evil underneath that.”

“I am a person with flaws and virtues, and part of my problem is that I have values that don’t align with the world that I’m in,” Sarah said. “There might be something about the curse that makes violating those values easier, but in my case it’s hard to know for sure because of how I respond to peer pressure.”

Archimedes had known about the concept of peer-pressure before Sarah accepted the Circle’s vampirically-biased vote, but he suddenly realized that the mistake he was angry about was the result of Sarah succumbing to that weakness. “When you had to start hunting, did you want to?”

Sarah shook her head. “I would have preferred not to hurt anyone. Thinking of the curse as separate from yourself is usually counterproductive, but there was a sort of peaceful feeling about letting the monster do its work while letting the thinking part just watch. Instead of fighting the curse until it consumed me, I made friends with it.”

Archimedes shook his head. “I can’t do that. My morality is shaky enough as it is.”

Sarah considered him thoughtfully. “As long as the truce holds, you won’t have to kill your own food. Even if it does break, there will still be farms.”

“What about vimputu?” Archimedes asked.

Sarah shook her head. “You’re going to have to drink real blood far more often than I do, so don’t try to be a vegetarian.”

“Won’t that make me more likely to become savage?” Archimedes asked.

“Quite the opposite.” Sarah poked him in the ribs, which would have been visible if he were shirtless. “If you don’t give this body everything it needs, you are likely to attack someone to get it. Feed properly, and maybe you’ll even fill out. I told you that you needed to be careful about getting enough food when you decided to go vegetarian. Being this skinny wasn’t good for you.” She poked him harder to reinforce the point.

Archimedes snarled and slashed at Sarah’s face. Though they hadn’t developed into proper claws yet, his nails had thickened enough to be serviceable weapons. They closed almost instantly, but the scratches were deep enough to bleed.

Archimedes stared in shock at the scratches, then at his hands. “I’m sorry, I…”

Sarah smirked at him. “You need to learn how to control those urges, and they’re stronger when you’re hungry. There’s also the matter of defending yourself against other vampires. You’re unlikely to run into anyone that can’t overpower you physically, so you’re going to have to keep your wits even when provoked. At least most vampires won’t just pick on a whelp for no good reason. Might makes right, but sometimes someone who looks like they should be at the bottom of the pecking-order might be a favorite of someone stronger.”

Archimedes frowned. “Surely no one would attack me.”

“Don’t rely on them to care who you are. I had to knock a few heads in the early days,” Sarah said. “At least now I have enough of a reputation that I just get verbally insulted if anything. I can put up with that.”


	13. Chapter 13

It was the morning after the young Guardians had learned that Archimedes had been turned into a vampire, the second day since Sarah had been in the cage. The sky was covered with the type of sodden clouds that would fitfully spit in resistance to dropping a proper rain. 

A man strode through the gates of Letestadt, which were open for anyone human to come into and out of the city. From his long red coat, it was easy enough to assume that he was from one of the coastal towns. The way he carried himself indicated that he felt he was important; more likely an officeholder than a ship’s captain to judge from his fair complexion. While rare, this type of man was seen often enough that the citizens did not give more than curious glances.

The man walked as if he knew exactly where he was going. He stopped at the main door to the Head Chancellor’s home and rapped hard on the painted metal. A servant answered, and the visitor said, “Whatever the Head Chancellor is currently doing, interrupt him and inform him that Kain is here to see him.”

The servant’s eyes darted in appraisal of the visitor and within seconds he gave a deferential bow. “Please come in so that you can wait for his answer in comfort.”

The man was kept waiting for almost ten minutes in the parlor. When Caldwell entered, the illusion melted away to reveal Kain as he really was. Kain had pulled a book from the shelf and was paging through it with the delicacy that the artifact demanded.

Caldwell let an affronted glance slip before he composed himself. “What brings you here today?”

Kain delicately turned another page of the book he had set on the table. “There are a number of issues that we should discuss, one more than I was expecting. It disturbs me that your books are in such poor condition and that your history may be lost because of it.”

“These are old editions that the archivists have already copied. You may take that book if it interests you,” Caldwell said. “I tried to call for Archimedes about his servant, but I didn’t get a response.”

“Archimedes had a turn of health, though he is recovering, and he might not have noticed that you wanted his attention,” Kain said.

“My condolences for Archimedes,” Caldwell said. “I thought that Sarah had gone back on her agreement when I let her go, but painting the statue’s eyes green was a sign that worked against me. At least most of my people are convinced that they will not suffer Fortuna’s wrath, but some now believe that she is special to the Lady.”

“Neither Sarah nor her allies caused that. She realized at the last moment that a showy miracle would work against her, not that it would have been provided even if she had asked. She said that she owes you a favor in recompense for her failure to do what she said she would, but I don’t think that she owes you anything after you demanded her death,” Kain said.

“I suspected that she would resort to trickery to save herself,” Caldwell said. “That she offered to make up for it shows that she has some integrity, and I intend to collect that favor.”

“Just to be clear, you will not punish her further as long as she doesn’t commit another crime in your city?” Kain asked.

“My people are mostly satisfied with allowing those who transgress against Fortuna to be left to her will,” Caldwell said. “That favor is her only standing debt as far as I’m concerned.”

“Try to keep your hopes reasonable. Sarah is limited in where she can go and what she can do,” Kain said.

“Because of your orders, or as punishment handed down by Archimedes?” Caldwell asked. “She’s never been forthright about what she did or the exact nature of her sentence.”

“I will not divulge that information if she has not opted to share it, but the commotion here is just a small sampling of the mayhem she can cause if given free reign over her own actions,” Kain said. “She is just as interested as you are in dispelling the myth that she is special to Fortuna. I will ask her what she intends to do about the statue and stop her if she decides on something idiotic.”

Caldwell nodded. “Thank you for that.”

“I also have a message from Chixiksi. After seeing the state that orphan was in, and hearing about what you tried to do to Catullus, Chixiksi is uncomfortable with letting Ribaki come here,” Kain said. “Sherrod will have to go to him if he wants to see him.”

Caldwell frowned. “Then they will not see each other. I was never sure that letting that Hylden near Sherrod was suggested with his welfare in mind and I will not tolerate them being unsupervised. At least I never caught him doing anything nefarious and it seems that Sherrod wasn’t harmed by it. What you’ve done to Birney was bad enough.”

“Alliances formed in childhood are often the strongest,” Kain said. “What is your complaint about Birney?”

“He’s argumentative, insubordinate, and stubborn,” Caldwell said.

“When I raised my sons, I thought that I wanted unquestioning obedience from them. Instead, I learned to value their saying so when they disagreed with me,” Kain said. “If all goes well, Birney will have to stand up to me as a peer for centuries after your death and he is already bold enough to manage it.”

Caldwell calmed. “I worry about him.”

“Accepting your eldest’s role in this world takes courage,” Kain said. “He may have a greater responsibility than what you must have imagined at his birth, but in some ways the burden should be easier to bear.”

Caldwell stilled in dread as something he hadn’t thought much about before came to mind. What happened to Raziel was taught at the school in Valeholm, and Birney had learned a more accurate version than what was taught to Catullus’ generation. Birney was more comfortable sharing those lessons than what he was learning from the Circle, so Caldwell had learned about Kain’s eldest through his own.

“I want to see Birney,” Caldwell said.

“I shall relay your request once our business is concluded,” Kain said.

Caldwell’s eyes narrowed, but otherwise he did not show his irritation. He viewed Kain as an equal, not realizing how presumptuous that was, but he was not used to dealing with anyone that was not lower than himself. “Very well, what other business do you have with me?”

“Has Birney told you about what the vempari once worshipped?” Kain asked.

“They worshipped a parasite with tentacles and eyes? It seems like a preposterous fairy tale,” Caldwell said. “If you believe in that, I expect you believe in the story about a princess whose soul was stolen by a doll.”

“Her name was Lanette. She was the daughter of Ottmar, king of Willendorf. It wasn’t the doll, but the doll-maker Elzevir.” Kain decided not to mention that he killed Elzevir. In the timeline where William died, it was a pack of Moebius’ hunters that retrieved the doll containing the princess’ soul. “At the time, I was disgusted at Ottmar’s weakness for letting his kingdom decline while he mourned, but now I understand how little it mattered to him.”

Kain continued, “I believe in what I have seen with my own eyes, and I can purify the sight of others so that they can see that parasite for what it truly is. That purification follows a person even through reincarnation, and evidently one of those orphans that escaped to Valeholm was born with the ability to see the parasite. She had been rendered mute by the shock of encountering it in the bowels of your city. What I want is your cooperation with removing that infestation.”

“What sort of cooperation?” Caldwell asked.

“Do not impede the vampires that will come to this city to rip out that cancer,” Kain said. “Also, tell your men to let me purify their sight so that it cannot hide from them, though they may not wish to confront it themselves.”

“You expect me to let more vampires into this city?” Caldwell scowled. “What if I refuse?”

“This is not a negotiation. I will be sending a force to remove that parasite. You have fair warning to keep your people from panicking about it,” Kain said. “I do not want the truce to fail when it has been working better than expected, but I have always been prepared for that inevitability.”

Caldwell glared at Kain for a moment, and then said, “Clerk, fetch the diagrams of the city.” There was a rustling from behind a wall. “I would like some measure of control over their movements.”

“That is acceptable as long as they can explore every nook and cranny they can find,” Kain said. “The parasite tends to hide underground, so my force should not be out in the open for long.”


	14. Chapter 14

It was late into the morning after the young Guardians had learned that Archimedes had been turned into a vampire. Tanyanika had been sent by Keturah to the courtyard in front of Chixiksi’s home. She arrived in spot that couldn’t be seen from the street, but the old lady that tended to the rock-garden glanced at her before resuming her work. Tanyanika had wondered why a rock-garden seemed to need such constant maintenance even with the odd designs raked into the fine gravel, but Chixiksi said that the groundskeeper was more of a gatekeeper that had trouble holding still.

Tanyanika rang the buzzer and waited patiently until Chixiksi opened the door. She made a gesture suitable for greeting a teacher and asked, “Is this a bad time?”

Chixiksi smiled. “It is an [interesting time] and I could use some company.”

As Tanyanika followed Chixiksi into the family room she asked, “Are you well?” She had noticed his switch to English for a moment and wondered at the significance of it.

“It is just stress. So many things have been happening at once and I’m looking forward to a bit of boredom,” Chixiksi said. “Poor Ozker is going through worse than I am and there’s not much I can do to help.”

“Because of Archimedes?” Tanyanika asked.

“It’s expected for a fledgling vampire to be irascible, but it sounds like Archimedes is trying his patience. Fortunately, it’s almost impossible for whelps to stay awake during the first several days,” Chixiksi said.

“Archimedes was always grumpy to begin with, even when he looked like he was in a decent mood,” Tanyanika said.

Chixiksi chuckled. “The last time I saw him in a good mood was before he hit puberty.”

“I suppose you heard about Sarah,” Tanyanika said.

“That she’s no longer forbidden from seeing you? That is not the sort of decision that Archimedes could make without persuading the rest of us, even though he was the one who had to convince us to keep Sarah from seeing you in the first place,” Chixiksi said.

“Why did Archimedes change his mind about letting me see Sarah?” Tanyanika asked.

“It’s hard for Archimedes to read someone’s future after they’ve been around Sarah. If it weren’t for that, I would have made stronger arguments for you to be able to see her occasionally. Even people who have been around Sarah make it so that Archimedes can only see possibilities,” Chixiksi said. “In this case, Archimedes lived through a different future timeline that events have been diverted away from. He has clear knowledge of what would have happened if Sarah hadn’t gotten out of that cage when she did, and it was something that he felt was worth risking his life to change. The windfall is that he can change other things that normally he wouldn’t take that sort of risk for. In your case, he saw that meeting Sarah before you assumed your Guardianship would do you more good than harm.”

“Keturah thinks that it’s a bad idea,” Tanyanika said. “And did Hardegin speak with you?”

“I am also having some reservations now,” Chixiksi said. “Hardegin gave me an earful when you told him about crazy-makers. I suppose you haven’t been told much about the [black-ribboners.]”

Tanyanika shook her head. “That’s not a term I’m familiar with.”

“Sarah is their [guru.] It’s like a (person who tries to push new ideas) except she’s influencing the way the vampires think about what it means to be a vampire,” Chixiksi said. “Apparently they turned into a cult without her noticing. At least in the dead timeline, she managed to slip out of being their messiah without the situation turning ugly. Archimedes gave her knowledge of how she did it, so hopefully it will be peaceful in this timeline.”

Tanyanika blinked. “Are you being serious? How does that even happen?”

Chixiksi shrugged helplessly. “While I could believe that Sarah was oblivious, Archimedes and Kain were supposed to be paying attention to the situation. There were other instances where we watched things going wrong without realizing it until we saw the effect.”

“I think I’m done with being upset that I wasn’t able to meet Sarah earlier,” Tanyanika said.

“We told you more than Archimedes would have liked because we felt that you should know enough about Sarah’s culture to not be shocked by it, but not in a way that you would emulate the undesirable parts,” Chixiksi said. “She has a movie in her storage-room, one of her favorites, that explains exactly what went wrong with Catullus and Archimedes. She just didn’t believe that the fiction contained truth.”

“I was told that she wanted to wait on meeting me until she wasn’t so distracted,” Tanyanika said. “Could she hurt me if she’s not paying attention? Archimedes said that when Sarah was breaking Moebius, most of it happened when she got distracted from doing it deliberately.”

“I’m going to ask her.” Chixiksi adopted the far-off look of someone who was communicating telepathically. 

Sarah’s mood was snappy, and the thought behind it was something about not caring and fire. Chixiksi queried about the last time Sarah slept, and the reply was an impression of her curling her wing around Anice and wondering how long ago that was. Chixiksi chided Sarah for going days without sleep, which was answered with ‘sleep is for the weak’ tinged by an acceptance that she was about to collapse. Sarah then asked if it was something she could work on while she was asleep. Chixiksi relayed what Tanyanika had just worried about. Sarah gave the briefest explanation, then conveyed some instructions. Chixiksi’s ‘why’ was given a ludicrous answer.

Chixiksi broke contact and facepalmed. “She hasn’t slept for days. She’ll explain about Moebius later, but she doesn’t want Archimedes to know that he was taken-in by charlatanism. As for accidental harm…” he sagged. 

Chixiksi just sat for a moment. Every line of his posture indicated that he had reached some sort of limit. “When Sarah first retired, she didn’t have much to do. I had a false identity created for her so that she could take classes. ‘Samirah’ fell in with a crazy-makers club and goes to their meetings regularly. I am serious, she said ‘the only time I get to be myself around casual friends is when I’m disguised as a Hylden.’ She wants you to meet them tomorrow afternoon. She thinks that if you can’t handle them, you can’t handle her when she’s not on her best behavior.”

“Are you alright?” Tanyanika asked. At Chixiksi’s nod, she asked, “Did what she said about the disguise make any sense?”

“It makes perfect sense.” Chixiksi gazed at her, daring her to doubt his sincerity or sanity. “She comes from a world of humans, but they have more similarities to Hylden than the humans here. Also, she’s naturally weird even by Terran standards and has been like that since she was a child. They forced her to act normal, far beyond our customs of behaving differently in different situations, even beyond keeping secrets. The habit of pretending to be something she’s not is so ingrained that she can’t stop until she’s too exhausted to maintain the act. Sarah being herself is really being a persona that takes less energy than what most situations require.”

“Is that why you were worried about me getting tired of hiding that I was a Guardian?” Tanyanika asked.

“I know that you used studying your (legacy system) training as an excuse to keep to yourself instead of doing things with your classmates after school. I don’t fault you for needing so much time alone to rest,” Chixiksi said. “There were problems with each option, and I don’t know if you remember me explaining it.”

Like on Earth, some Hylden computers and technology were outdated but not replaced because they performed their function and there was a fear of disrupting the infrastructure. The official story was that Tanyanika was being trained to maintain an outdated system that was classified. Chixiksi had offered to homeschool Tanyanika alongside Ribaki if she couldn’t cope with going to regular school while having a secret, though he explained that she needed practice with keeping secrets, and people might shun her for being connected to a vempari weapon. She was the only one who was hiding who she was, though no one in Letestadt was aware that Birney was a Guardian, save for his family. It was Archimedes who pressed for giving the young Guardians the most normal childhood possible.

“I remember everything,” Tanyanika said. “Does the offer still stand if I want to stop going to school? Trying to be friends with normal people feels fake. What I really want is to introduce my classmates to Jahangir and Ribaki at least, to show them that I have friends even if it means telling them the truth.”

“The way you neglect academics, the decent thing for a normal person to do would be to drop out and become an apprentice (skilled maintenance person.) It would make the paperwork easier if you are willing to live with people knowing the truth, but I think that they shouldn’t until you assume your Guardianship,” Chixiksi said. “I am willing to continue the half-lie that would let you commit yourself to book-study instead of classes, but I do not want you just lazing in your free time.”

“I want to focus on what is useful,” Tanyanika said.

Chixiksi gazed at her critically, “As long as you accept our definition of useful instead of your own view, I think I can agree to that.”


	15. Chapter 15

It was two nights after Archimedes was turned into a vampire. He still looked almost human, but his features had begun to sharpen. A vampire’s eyes did not normally turn gold right away, but Archimedes’ irises had been bleached nearly white during the ordeal that almost killed him. He stood on the roof of his apartment and gazed in amazement how brightly the crescent moon seemed to illuminate the street below.

Ozker came out onto the roof. “You seem calmer than last night.”

Archimedes nodded. “It seems that I’m becoming accustomed to this. I apologize for not acting properly grateful for it.”

Ozker snorted. “If you were happy about being cursed, I would wonder what was wrong with you.”

“I’m alive and…” Archimedes rubbed his arms as he considered telling Ozker about the change in his magic. Before, he had felt a resistance, something that he would describe as fluid turbulence, but now his magic flowed more easily. “I’m acting like I’m cold, but I guess it’s habit because I felt cold all of the time before. It doesn’t actually bother me now.”

“No doubt that feeling cold despite the robes was because you let yourself fall back into old habits of letting yourself get malnourished. I should have been more insistent on regular examinations to monitor your weight, especially after you sent Nerida away,” Ozker said. 

“She deserved better than to simply be my chatelain,” Archimedes said.

“Yes, she did.” Ozker gazed at him sadly before his expression hardened again. “Not feeling the cold is a danger to vampires when the temperature gets near freezing, so you need to get to a heat source if you start feeling sluggish.”

“Yes, sire.” Archimedes had almost said ‘Uncle’ but the hesitation was barely noticeable.

Ozker gave off a light growl and rolled his eyes. “I don’t need a reminder for how I’m more responsible for you than I would like.”

“You could have refused, but I am now glad that you didn’t. I did not realize just how much influence you would have over me, and you’re the one that I trust most with that.” Archimedes sighed. “Thank you. Not only for… My whole life, you’ve been there to help me in ways that others couldn’t.”

“Perhaps not enough.” Ozker turned towards the stairs that lead back down into the apartment. “Kain wants to see you when you are up for it. For now, I am willing to keep him away.”

Archimedes said, “Thank you, but I know Kain’s temper and he is easier to deal with if I don’t keep him waiting too long.”

Archimedes used a dry towel to try and remove the gritty feeling from his skin and got properly dressed before informing Kain that he was ready to speak to him.

Kain appeared and gazed at Archimedes appraisingly. “Are you well?”

“I guess I am, though I don’t have a basis for comparison.” Archimedes crossed his arms. “I suppose you’re happy about this.”

Kain’s expression darkened slightly. “I would have been before I realized that it’s not that simple. You now have the right to openly side with the black-ribboners.”

“As before, I’m satisfied with having as little to do with vampire politics as possible, and with keeping my involvement transparent when your problems pose a risk of affecting mortals.” Archimedes flopped onto the couch and gestured an invitation for Kain to sit as well. “I only intend to be like this for a few years, and even that long might not be needed if the damage doesn’t echo.”

“Even with your magic stifled, what you did nearly killed you. All of the adult Guardians felt the damage and we could not have waited for your successor to be ready.” Kain’s voice was level with only the slightest trace of anger. “Do you really think it is wise to ask for the cure?”

“This sort of thing will not happen again,” Archimedes said.

“I don’t believe that you can guarantee that, or it would not have happened even once,” Kain said.

“I could have avoided this, but instead I decided to gamble without being able to cheat. There were other options,” Archimedes said. “I also know that a cured vampire can still be turned by necromancy.”

Kain sat, and his expression softened. He spent a moment in contemplative silence before saying, “Hope is a terrible thing, and it would be easier to surrender to the inevitable.”

“I deal with the inevitable far more than you realize,” Archimedes snapped. He then pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is something that I cannot see clearly. It might end with having to put me down if the curse turns me into something that combines the worst traits of Vorador and my predecessor.”

Kain sighed. “I doubt that you would be like that. Has anyone told you why we decided that it was a good thing that Sarah did not become sadistic?”

“Not yet, but it would have come up,” Archimedes said. “Finneas would say something about how she’s not loyal to any one race, and she only tried to be sadistic out of pity for vampires, but she could just have easily turned against you if she had stopped caring about anyone.”

“When she needed to start hunting for herself, I tried to force her to abandon her humanity because I considered it a weakness. What humanity means to her is qualities like mercy and compassion.” Kain frowned as his gaze grew distant. “I demanded that she act more like a vampire, and I dislocated her shoulder before she agreed to it, but then I had to relent when she pointed out that many of the original vampires were willing to let themselves starve to death. Sarah did what she needed to do, but she still acted with mercy when she could. It surprised me that she was willing to try to destroy that.”

“Perhaps not as willingly as you imagine,” Archimedes said. “I have already decided that I will not kill anyone myself, and I hope that you can accept that.”

Kain shrugged noncommittally. “Your loss.”

Archimedes wasn’t sure if he trusted Kain to let it be that easy. Then again, there was a lack of prey as long as the truce held, and pacifism was no longer an undesirable trait. “Just like that?”

“Even if I was offended enough by your decision to try and change your mind, I expect that twisting your arm would not produce a desirable effect,” Kain said. “How much of the black-ribboner philosophy do you understand?”

“Due to the trouble they would cause if not interfered with, quite a lot… Though that is from the perspective of an outsider and devoid of what I have yet to glean from personal experience,” Archimedes said. “This is more opinion than anything definite, but the danger is not in the differences of philosophy itself. It’s that vampires have become polarized along those lines. I do not know if there is a way to peacefully bring vampire-kind back together, but I do not like the idea of allowing the situation to become violent.”

Kain snorted. “You might not like the idea, but I’ve found violence effective.”

“It would be hilarious if not for the casualties and collateral damage, especially since the matter would not be decisively resolved,” Archimedes said with all seriousness. “The black-ribboners would humiliate those who seek to harm them and then go back to their tame existence.”

“You’re bluffing,” Kain snarled.

Archimedes shrugged. “I am capable of that, and all that I can offer is an ‘I told you so’ if you decide to ignore my warning.”

Kain growled softly, and Archimedes was disturbed by how it made him feel. Instead of mortal terror, it was trepidation tinged with a hint of excitement. He almost wanted to growl back, but it was easy enough to suppress the urge. He was sure that provoking Kain into violence was almost as bad as an idea as ever.

Ozker had been lurking from the edge of the room, and he was the one to return Kain’s growl. “I would appreciate it if you don’t try to antagonize my fledgling.”

Kain glared at Ozker as he stood, but then turned back to Archimedes. “You have not earned the right to make decisions that affect other vampires. I will however consider what you have told me.” With that, he teleported away.

Archimedes frowned. Between Sarah’s explanations and just being among vampires as a peer, he had learned a lot about their customs, but he felt like he had just witnessed something unusual. He was trying to figure out how to frame a question when Ozker seemed to pick up on his confusion.

“It is my duty to make sure that you adjust to your new existence, but it is also my right to do so as I please without interference,” Ozker said. “Your Guardianship muddies that a bit, but for Kain to ignore my concern for your welfare at this time would be very rude.”

Archimedes didn’t bother trying to hide his worry. “I know that you had to be taught how to pass on the curse during the trouble with Lailah. Unless there’s something you haven’t told me, this is new for you as well.”

“I know that I lack experience, and I am unlike the others enough that I am not expected to follow all of their social rules,” Ozker said. “Hardegin was forced to foster many of his siblings and I believe that he has a good idea of what is best for you, so I am heeding his advice above what the others are telling me.”

Archimedes nodded in satisfaction. In addition to teaching him how to defend himself physically, Hardegin had given him lessons that Archimedes would have learned from his father if the man hadn’t died before Archimedes was born.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Long conversation.

It was the day that Tanyanika was supposed to meet the crazy-makers. She was helping Chixiksi monitor a simulation since Ozker was stuck in Aschedorf with Archimedes.

Out of the blue, Chixiksi said, “I don’t think you should go to the crazy-maker’s meeting.”

“But…” Tanyanika cut herself off to examine her assumptions instead of arguing about them. She felt that she could handle crazy-makers and it was a step to finally see her predecessor. “Why not?”

Chixiksi nodded in approval of her asking instead of going off. “There are too many uncontrolled variables. Sarah obviously had to weave some lies to pass as a Hylden for so long, and without knowing what they were, you might accidentally unravel some. It is better if you meet crazy-makers that don’t know Samirah.”

“Do you think the adjusted test will be good enough for me to be able to meet her?” Tanyanika asked.

“I’ll see if she’s awake.” Chixiksi reached out telepathically and rolled his eyes. “At least she acknowledges that her plan was stupid, though her reasons are flawed. She’s coming over in a few minutes and I’m supposed to stop her from speaking if she gets too weird.”

Sarah arrived and she smiled at Tanyanika. “Hi there. I understand that it must have been hard on you to wait for so long, but I agree with the reasons for it. If nothing else, you needed to know what normal is so that you could recognize when I’m doing something you shouldn’t imitate.”

Tanyanika nodded. “I recently came to accept that, but you’re here now and I have so many questions that I don’t know where to begin.”

“I will do everything I can to stop taking risks so I can be around long enough to answer them all,” Sarah said. “I still have to clean up some of the messes I made, but I’m very likely to survive.”

“Sarah,” Chixiksi said. “Why don’t you tell her your reasons for changing your mind about the crazy-makers.”

“The short version is that I’m a walking example of [Murphy’s law] in action even before I picked a fight with a goddess of luck,” Sarah said. “I still want you to meet some of those people, maybe not as a group, but we have to be prepared for the whole thing to blow up in our faces.”

“Murphy’s statement is that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” Chixiksi said. “She just accepts it instead of using that knowledge to take precautions.”

“I’m not a complete fail-hazard,” Sarah said. “It’s just that I don’t want to waste effort on the unlikely or acceptable, especially when that means that the thing that will go wrong is the most improbable and annoying thing possible. Plan for every contingency and the moon will probably fall out of the sky just to spite me.”

“Are you superstitious?” Tanyanika asked Sarah.

“I think I’m on the superstitious side of the gray area where the other end of the spectrum is reasonable precautions. I respect that Chixiksi has an emergency shower and eyewash station right behind me. By the way, is there a reason why they’re not deactivated?” Sarah smiled as Chixiski bristled and then went to shut off the valve.

“They’re usually supposed to be ready to use unless they’re being repaired,” Tanyanika said. “With Ozker gone, he probably forgot to worry about it for you.”

“No, I’m supposed to keep the shower shut off when I’m not actively working on something, even if there isn’t a vampire around. I just neglected to turn it off yesterday,” Chixiksi said. “I weighed the risks and decided that laboratories with vampires should keep theirs on, but my personal workroom doesn’t need to contain a constant hazard for my husband.”

“I checked even though I wasn’t even planning on being at that end of the room,” Sarah said. “I just mentioned it to tease him.”

“Did you think at all about what would go wrong with meeting the crazy-makers?” Tanyanika asked.

“Let’s see… All four of the vampires who were supposed to make sure I was awake might have let me sleep through it for various reasons. That would mean that I couldn’t swoop in and rescue you if you needed it,” Sarah said.

“I was planning to bring Jahangir with me,” Tanyanika said. “Warrior-caste tend to be immune to crazy-makers.”

“How were you planning to explain that?” Sarah asked. “I don’t know if you had a good reason prepared for why you know an amusement-caste or if you were planning on hiding that you knew me at all. If you were hiding it and I needed to get you out of there, I probably would have needed to tell them that you know my nephew and they might have assumed that I was talking about Ribaki even though they don’t believe anything I’ve said about my unrelated family.”

“I would have said that I didn’t want to talk about it,” Tanyanika said. “You disguise yourself as amusement-caste?”

Sarah nodded and turned to Chixiksi. “I’m sorry, you’re under a lot of stress and I should have reminded you to tell her that part.”

“Forgetting to tell her that is my fault,” Chixiksi said. “You told them that Ribaki is your nephew?”

“They don’t believe it,” Sarah said. “I’ve told them about Earth, that I’m really a vampire in disguise, that I’m the adopted aunt to a vempari and his human brother… There are things that are off-limits, like black-ribboner stuff, that I used to be a Guardian, and that I’m psychic. I don’t tell them anything if I’m not willing to face the consequences of them actually believing me, but it’s all so preposterous that they’re more willing to believe that I’m delusional, a liar, or both. I have also told them a few lies, though trying to goad them into thinking I’m certifiable instead of just an artist with a looser grip on reality than normal isn’t working as well as I would have hoped. I should be able to fake insanity, but they’re not fooled by it.”

Chixiksi sighed and turned to Tanyanika. “How are you coping?”

“Apparently better than you,” Tanyanika said. “Sarah, why do you want them to think you’re crazy?”

“Part of it is that I don’t have to be as careful about what I say if they’re not going to believe me anyway. Even with being careful, I was likely to let something believable slip, but all those preposterous things would make it get lost in the noise,” Sarah said. “It would be sad if I wanted them to believe me about something, but I think it’s funny to tell them true things and have them dismiss it.”

“Are you crazy?” Tanyanika asked.

“First we’d have to get into a philosophical debate about what that means, and I’m not sure I want to do that until later,” Sarah said. “I know I’m not perfectly healthy, far from it, but I’m functional, I’m stable, and I’m not suffering. With what I’ve been through, I’m surprised that I’m not a gibbering wreck.”

“I think we should wait on that discussion,” Tanyanika said. “It sounds like you do take precautions and make contingency plans.”

“My plans rarely survive being set into motion,” Sarah said. “What I have is a bag of tricks that work for getting out of a wide variety of situations. Just about everyone who could endanger your secret about being a Guardian knows to use Ribaki as an excuse if they don’t have anything better. Those crazy-makers are nosey and ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ would have caused them to pester you until you could think of something.”

“People knowing that I’m friends with Ribaki would cause its own problems,” Tanyanika said.

“Everyone knows that too, but it seemed like less problems than the wrong people knowing you’re a Guardian,” Sarah said. “If the crazy-makers had assumed you know Ribaki and I had time for damage control, I would have blown smoke about one of my other nephews.”

“Couldn’t you force people to… I don’t know, something like how you could make Caldwell regret threatening Catullus,” Tanyanika said.

“You should make your own decision about how ethical it is to simply make people do what you want, but I try to see how much I can accomplish without using my powers. I know that I don’t completely understand what I’m doing, and I’ve even been too afraid of hurting someone to learn how heavy-handed I can be with my abilities before I cause unacceptable harm. Reaching in and changing someone… I compare it to surgery that leaves scars. Even if someone asks me to do it to them, I try to find another way,” Sarah said. “Besides, even if I didn’t care about hurting them, I’m not sure I could do that sort of thing to a roomful of people at once.”

“What about Caldwell?” Tanyanika asked.

“He would have died if I kept fighting him until I needed rescue. I almost got him to let me go just with mundane tactics despite him knowing that I’ve done it to him before. With my powers, I strengthened the rationale under the choice I needed him to make, inserted a little good mood about it, and weakened his reasons for making the choice he would have,” Sarah said. “Now if I don’t do something, Keturah is likely to turn him inside out. I might try talking to him about why he’s in danger, but if that doesn’t work, I’m thinking nightmares.”

“Does this relate at all to how you broke Moebius?” Tanyanika asked. “Archimedes’ exact words were ‘Whether or not I’ve become as skilled in manipulation as my predecessor is debatable, but he should have been better able to defend himself against her. She was able to warp him using almost nothing but words and the most progress was made when she got distracted from doing it intentionally. My ability to manipulate pales in comparison to even her efforts.’ But Chixiksi told me that you didn’t want Archimedes to know that he was fooled by charlatanism.”

“I think I need a bit of a break to think before I get into that,” Sarah said. “You do understand that you need to start from scratch in the way you approach your Guardianship, right? Morals, method, intent, all of it. Do not use me as a foundation.”

Tanyanika flinched, but nodded. “We’re all supposed to do that, save for trying to learn from past mistakes.”

Sarah turned to Chixiksi. “Make sure she knows I’m a monster. I’m having trouble with wanting to convince her and it should be easier when I’m out of the room. Tell her whatever you have to.” Sarah telepathically conveyed her realization that she wouldn’t accomplish anything by letting Anice die.


	17. Chapter 17

Chixiksi sighed and gestured for Tanyanika to follow him. “It’s for the best that I do this instead of her trying to do it herself, but I wish Ozker or Archimedes were awake to help me.”

“I’ve waited for so long, but if you really need them, I can wait for longer,” Tanyanika said.

Chixiksi led her into the kitchen and started preparing calming tea. “I’d rather get it over with. Sarah has done more than one terrible thing, probably some things that I don’t even know about.”

Chixiksi rummaged in the cupboard and brought out a packet of crackers. He contemplated them silently for a moment before saying, “She says that she has a fake conscience. She doesn’t want to be evil, but she recognizes that she has an inclination to do things that are immoral, even by the standards the society she grew up in. She doesn’t realize that many of the people in her society were like that. Many of the people who seemed good were constrained either by the threat that their god would have them punished eternally in the afterlife if they did not follow religious rules, or people who would be punished by society for not following the same morality as the people who believed in that god.”

Tanyanika frowned, but patiently waited while Chixiksi put the crackers on a plate and turned to pour the kettle over the tea leaves.

“Sarah made her own rules. Some of them are completely irrational and even the ones that make sense in context have no consistent logic. She doesn’t have anything to lose regarding the god of her society because she would already be punished just for rejecting him. She’s unwilling to go home, and no person here would punish her for breaking some of the rules she imposes on herself, but sometimes she chooses the values of her own culture even when they conflict with the values of every culture she interacts with here. Other times, she is willing to violate her own culture’s values in favor of local ones and even break her own rules.” Chixiksi set the mugs down and gazed at Tanyanika, indicating that he was ready for her to speak.

Tanyanika took a moment to process the new information. “Do you know what those rules are?”

“Not really. Sarah makes adjustments as needed, but it seems like such a convoluted mess that she might as well not have rules,” Chixiksi said. “She was using an adaptation of medical ethics while she was serving as a Guardian, but violating consent to prevent someone from being murdered is not justified under those rules. She even complained about being asked to invade Moebius’ mind, though as a Guardian she had to answer to the good of the world above all else. Sarah also kept trying to help people as the Mind Guardian when she knew that she was a quack.”

“Doesn’t the good of the world mean that Sarah should prevent a problem between Keturah and Birney?” Tanyanika asked.

“The Circle has survived internal tension before, but I do not miss it,” Chixiksi said. “We would be better off if we could avoid any more grudges within the Circle.”

“Also, Archimedes complained about Sarah inflicting her alien philosophies on everyone and not seeing anything wrong with it,” Tanyanika said. “Shouldn’t she have made a rule about that?”

“She tries to be a bit more thoughtful about what values she tries to impose on others, but we didn’t see anything wrong with it either. She mostly kept the religious stuff to herself and the rest of it seemed like a positive influence. Sarah even started an initiative where the objective was to inspire Hylden and vempari into ‘not being jerks.’ When it was discovered that she was accidentally doing it to the vampires as well...” Chixiksi stared contemplatively into his mug. “We still don’t understand why vampires tend to become savage and sadistic, but they were threatened by the idea that they didn’t have to be. Sarah asked for a vote, and it was four vampires against three mortals. Once she was cut off from the Pillar, she tried to become sadistic to please the vampires.”

“I remember that you didn’t want to talk about it when I was ten. That you wish you had prevented it, and that it was worse for you than it was for her,” Tanyanika said.

“What Sarah did was so evil that it made Vorador uncomfortable.” Chixiksi sipped his tea down to the dregs and set the mug aside. “I don’t know the details and I don’t want to, but he had her to torture a man before killing him. Vampires can buy criminals that have been sentenced to death, but they both knew that the man was innocent. She insists that she didn’t enjoy it, and it seems like her false conscience is mostly intact. Two nights later she got hurt while saving a woman’s life. That’s when the black-ribboners got started.”

“And they turned into a cult,” Tanyanika said. “She managed to fool a pack of crazy-makers into thinking she was a Hylden. Are you sure she wasn’t lying to you about not noticing? Is it possible she has become evil?”

“I’m sure that she really is trying to be good, but she has trouble keeping her moral compass properly calibrated. She lets herself get pulled in too many directions,” Chixiksi said. “Then again, she just tried to destroy a religion and was going to let a child become a casualty of that fight, both of which are against her values enough that she had to consciously decide to go against them.”

“It sounds like that whole city was going to let that child die, though that’s no excuse if Sarah could have done anything,” Tanyanika said. “Religions should be destroyed. The main reason for me to think that it’s not that simple is that you seem to believe that there are people who need a threat of divine punishment to follow the rules. From what Birney told me, the Fortuna-worshippers are just trying to appeal to a spirit that doesn’t care what people do beyond the offerings. Sarah shouldn’t have acted impulsively, but it’s good that she wanted to destroy that one.”

Chixiksi shook his head. “It worries me. Her world has had its own problems inspired by religion, but some of the worst ones were people being persecuted for peacefully celebrating their beliefs.” He blinked. “Of course. Anice told me that offering thieves are beaten to placate Fortuna. Sarah does take issue with religion being used as an excuse to hurt people.”

“You were supposed to convince me that Sarah is a monster,” Tanyanika said. “I agree that she’s done some terrible things, but it sounds like she thought that she had a good reason for a lot of it.”

“Sarah, get in here.” Chixiksi spoke quietly, but he also projected it to her mentally. He then put more water in the kettle and added some herbs for headache to his tea-dregs.


	18. Chapter 18

Sarah came in and took Chixiksi's offered hand. “You tried. That was very brave for you not to refuse.” Sarah turned to Tanyanika. “He gave me his memory of the conversation. Have you been told about good intentions?”

“Archimedes said that your good intentions are potentially horrifying,” Tanyanika said.

“Close enough, but it’s not just me. Even when not being malicious, things can go wrong,” Sarah said. “Can you at least remember that you can’t trust me to know what the right thing is? For everything I do or say, you need to examine it before accepting it.”

“Yes, but I think I see what your problem is,” Tanyanika said. “If you followed Hylden morals, you wouldn’t get confused.”

Sarah frowned. “Like Jahangir’s dad?”

“No! He’s horrible.” Tanyanika calmed at Sarah’s clownish grin. “Science-caste morals are the highest standard.”

Sarah considered her thoughtfully. “So you’ve gathered all of the data and analyzed it to reach that conclusion.” She waited a moment and said, “Are you okay? You look like I just hit you in the face with a plank of wood.”

“Other than my face not hurting, it feels like a tree branch.” Tanyanika stared into space for a moment, then she took a cracker and chewed it intently. It was a few minutes before she said, “I only considered the morals of my caste against carponus e donadi.”

“Getting to a good outcome through dumb luck is my thing and you need to be better than that if I’m ever going to let you hold my leash,” Sarah said. “I examined the alternatives and I do take science-caste morals into consideration. You have a good foundation to build on, but it’s a dangerous arrogance to be so sure that your method is the only right one. Vempari felt the same way when they started the war.”

“Making your own rules hasn’t worked right either,” Tanyanika said.

“I think the real problem is that I get carried away with respecting other people’s values,” Sarah said. “I am wrong a lot of the time, but sometimes I’m less wrong than the other person. It’s like trying to walk on a beam. That’s why when I have time to ask for advice, there are a few people that I trust to have a good idea of what the right thing is.” She pointed to Chixiksi.

“Is that what you meant about the leash?” Tanyanika asked.

Sarah shook her head. “I didn’t break a law when I tortured that man, but my punishment is based on an Earth sentence called [community service.] Really it started as a justification for Archimedes to try and keep me under control, but doing it that way removed a few of the ethical hurdles. I can refuse evil orders, but otherwise I am to carry out tasks for him or anyone he loans me to.”

Tanyanika asked, “What exactly did you do to that man?”

“I don’t think you need to know the details,” Sarah said. “It was bad.”

“Did you do anything to his mind?” Tanyanika asked.

“No,” Sarah said. “Strike that, I used a few mundane methods.”

“Did you ever intentionally harm someone with mental powers?” Tanyanika asked.

“Before I restored the Pillar, I was killing people to drink their blood, and sometimes I would use my dark gift to do it,” Sarah said. “Afterwards, there was Moebius and a few other examples where I determined that it had to be done. Hurting people with mundane methods was mostly when I felt like they deserved it, like the potshots I took at Vorador while he was trying to teach me how to be evil.”

“And you feel that it’s for the best that you do something to Caldwell,” Tanyanika said. “Are you ready to tell me about Moebius?”

“I’ll get to that, but I think I’d like to address Chixiksi calling me a quack,” Sarah said. “At first, I didn’t realize that the Pillar was supposed to grant me knowledge. Everyone had trouble figuring out what they could do and how to do it, so I assumed that the architects intended for there to be some sort of training. The best resource I had available was Hylden behavioral research, but then Chixiksi managed to download a lot of relevant information from Earth’s megadatabase. I realize now that it’s like treating a wound with moldy bread, but I became a decent animedice.”

“I speak some vempari, but I don’t know that word,” Tanyanika said.

“Catullus is one. It’s a person who treats sicknesses of the spirit,” Sarah said. “Most of the job is listening and talking, but that’s what most people needed when they petitioned me for help. The problem is that they expected miracles, but I was honest about whether I thought I could help them and how I would try to do it. I only lied to the hypochondriac because it was the least invasive way to treat him. It helped that I could feel around in their minds to find what was wrong.”

“Archimedes explained most of why he didn’t want you to retire as soon as you discovered the problem, but you should have denied the petitioners,” Tanyanika said.

“I still work as an animedice, not much because there are plenty of good ones now, it’s just no longer questionable because people have realistic expectations about it. There’s no consistent training and the closest thing to licensing is to get the blessing of another animedice,” Sarah said. “As for denying petitioners, I’m really sorry but I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I did that.”

“With everything you did wrong, you couldn’t live with yourself for doing something right?” Tanyanika asked.

“It’s a difference in values,” Sarah said. “There was a chance of harming someone, but I couldn’t be idle when I had the ability to help people.”

“What about the girl in Letestadt?” Tanyanika asked.

“I misestimated that crowd. I thought that there would be some sort of outcry at least, but they just watched,” Sarah said. “By the time I realized what was happening… Just one more person’s blood on my hands and I would rather have borne the full blame than have anyone else get hurt. The one person I asked for help was also put in danger. The people he asked for help were also at risk and it might not be over. Even teleporting out might have caused problems because no one there knows that I could do it myself.”

Tanyanika looked like she was going to make another retort, so Chixiksi spoke the name of a procedure for labs with contamination danger. It was like the trolly problem, but the dictated answer was to pull the switch to doom the people closest to the leak rather than allow everyone else to possibly be contaminated. ‘The good of the many outweigh the needs of the few.’ Tanyanika nodded. Chixiksi then said, “I would have been willing to share that blame with you. Ozker wasn’t forbidden from getting involved and he might have been willing to help.”

“Actually, other than the possibility of horrific consequences, it could have been hilarious if Caldwell wanted to put Ozker in that cage for helping Anice,” Sarah said. “I’m hoping that sort of situation doesn’t come up again, but I’ll at least let you know if it does.”


	19. Chapter 19

“Did Archimedes tell you that he knows a bit about charlatanism?” Sarah asked.

“He showed us some coin tricks and told us that it’s harder to do magical-seeming things without magic. Tricks can be impressive because they take skill,” Tanyanika said. “He said that he also likes to watch fraudulent fortune-tellers work.”

“Which is why it’s embarrassing that he fell for something. I really did try to teach him better,” Sarah said. “I never used the title of mentalist because it felt silly, but it took me years to figure out why. On my world, all magic is charlatanism. The main difference is approach and the size of an audience. Mentalists there go from a scale where one end is using observation and psychological tricks to fool people into thinking that their claimed abilities are real, while the other is being completely honest about using observation and psychological tricks to create an impressive performance. The fake end is not just using tricks to seem like they can read minds, but also people who claim to do things like communicate with the dead or tell fortunes. When Archimedes is manipulating people into doing what he wants, he’s using a much smaller bag of tricks than the one I have, even when talking about mundane stuff.”

Tanyanika asked, “So you feel more like the title when you aren’t using your abilities?”

“I really do read minds when I’m working because my ability to read facial expressions is unreliable, but I feel that the mundane tricks are safer than using my powers to influence people,” Sarah said.

Tanyanika said, “I’m not sure that manipulating people is a good thing.”

“I think that intent matters, but you’re probably right. Archimedes does it for the greater good. I do it to help and harm at whim. Caldwell does it for leader reasons. Moebius considered it necessary, but he also did it for fun,” Sarah said. “If I was allowed to change the way I helped raise Archimedes, I’d still teach him the same tricks but with different expectations. Instead of assuming that he needed to manipulate people, I would have encouraged him to find a different way to do his job.”

“Manipulation can be helpful?” Tanyanika asked.

“Like (teach riddles) but so subtle that people tend not to notice,” Sarah said. “By the way, I’m sorry that I hurt you with one, but it wouldn’t have hit so hard if you didn’t desperately need it. I’ll try to be more careful, but it will be difficult because I don’t want to be reading your mind right now.”

“Is there a reason you’re not using that power?” Tanyanika asked.

“I just don’t like knowing things about people that they don’t want me to know,” Sarah said. “I try not to look that deep, but sometimes I notice. When I do want to know their secrets, a really great trick for making people shine a light on them is to tell them not to think about them.”

Sarah watched as Tanyanika failed to hide her discomfort. “Looks like you’ve got a whopper. I know a card-reader who is good at getting people to reveal those sorts of secrets. I still keep an eye on her to make sure she’s not using her skills for evil, not that I could really do anything except complain to Archimedes. He had never been enthusiastic about a card-reader until I explained how she was using the cards.”

Sarah blinked as she realized that she was getting distracted. “When it came time to prepare Moebius for his last task, I could not guarantee that I could simply force him cooperate. The original plan involved the others softening him up first. Archimedes had to pretend that he was a lot like Moebius to fool him, but Archimedes couldn’t handle it. That’s where I came in. I’m willing to give you my memories of what happened when I think you’re ready, but for now I’ll just paint it in broad strokes. When I went into his cage, the only positive trait Moebius had was that he loved Archimedes like a son and became more concerned for him when he learned the truth. Moebius knew that he had to die, but he didn’t want to go down without a fight.”

“We played a manipulation game. He could feel if I probed his mind, so I had to do it blind. It took less than ten minutes to find out that Moebius had childhood trauma, and it was easy enough to wear him down using modified parenting techniques. He spent seven years among the cursed vempari and Jahangir’s father sounds like a good example of what they were like. That is no excuse for what Moebius did, but it seems like he might not have been a terrible person if they hadn’t kidnapped him. Properly redeeming him wasn’t possible, but he did make progress with feeling regret for some of the things he did. Eventually Moebius was just stalling until he felt like Archimedes was going to be alright, and then he forfeited because delaying for too long might have harmed Archimedes. Moebius cooperated while I removed everything that would make him want to fight back against being sacrificed.”

“So Moebius wasn’t defending himself,” Tanyanika said.

“The game he was playing was real enough. Surviving just wasn’t on the list of things he was trying to win,” Sarah said.

Tanyanika said, “Are you sure that you’re not going to harm Caldwell? Keturah mentioned that he reminded her of Janos.”

“When I told Keturah that there was a problem with Janos’ mind, she initially argued that leaders tend to have those personality traits,” Sarah said. “The Head Chancellor is stubborn, but Caldwell the man is incredibly malleable. I could slip up, but I’m more willing to not push him enough to accomplish anything rather than push him too far. Despite the way it sounds, I’m not completely incompetent. He should be able to handle a few nightmares as long as I let him get enough sleep, and I am planning to focus on doing it during predawn.”

“Can I tell you not to do it?” Tanyanika asked.

“You will have the authority to dictate how I use my powers, and the ability to take them away though I don’t want you to,” Sarah said. “For now, all you can really do is try to reason with me because I don’t think you have a full understanding of what I’m planning to do. I watched Moebius and Archimedes have a conversation that I couldn’t follow because it appealed to a sense that only the Timestreamers have.”

“What if I assume my Guardianship?” Tanyanika asked.

“I wanted to wait a few days before telling you this, but the adjustment period will be unpleasant unless I manage to prepare you,” Sarah said. “The architects of the Pillars assumed that Guardians would be vempari, and it’s rare for them to not have at least a little telepathic ability. It will take time for you to learn how to block out the thoughts of others.”

Tanyanika frowned with worry. “Do you really think you can teach me?”

“You don’t teach a child how to walk. I approach being an animedice as an art. Observe to understand, but don’t worry about trying to calculate that understanding, just skip to application to see if it works,” Sarah said. “One unique thing about my dark gift is that I can allow others to control it. It will be [trial and error] but I think I can keep you from getting badly hurt.”

Tanyanika said, “If you know science-caste morals, then you should know that your approach is completely unethical.”

“It’s only somewhat unethical by modern Terran standards and not considered unethical by humans or vempari, ” Sarah said. “Back home, I would need years of formal education to get a mental-doctor license, but otherwise what they do is primitive by Hylden standards. Remember that they believe the interface is the whole person. A lot of the time, they listen to the patient describe their problem, and then determine if talking is the best approach or if they should use medicine that affects the chemical balance in the brain.”

Tanyanika frowned. “Why don’t they run tests before using medicine?”

“They don’t know how,” Sarah said. “Trying medicine is the test unless they think the problem is something they can check for without drilling into the skull.”

“You don’t see the problem with this?” Tanyanika asked.

“That field has always been in a dreadful state, but they are striving to reduce suffering. I’m not going to go into the horror stories right now, but blindly changing the chemistry a vast improvement,” Sarah said. “Terran science is a bit looser in the ethics compared to Hylden science, but Terrans went from Letestadt’s technology level to almost equivalent to Hylden in about two centuries, call it three if you want to argue about Earth having a longer year. Terrans don’t have a lot of things you do because some technologies run on magic, but they have things you don’t and they’re exploring outer space.”

“The only time Hylden advanced that quickly is during the war, and it made my ancestors desperate enough to all but abandon moral constraint,” Tanyanika said.

“Terrans did have two world wars and a lot of smaller ones during that time. [The Space Race] started when weapons development turned into a pissing contest, but we had reached a point of [mutually assured destruction] if we kept fighting enough to have a third world war,” Sarah said. “I think that the real problem is that Terrans are such curious creatures that we are driven to understand the mysteries of the universe.”

“You’ve convinced me that I shouldn’t listen to you about ethics,” Tanyanika said.

“I’m a walking example of what not to do, except when I do the right thing by accident,” Sarah said. “If you don’t want my help in learning to block thoughts, there is a faraday cage for thought at the back of the apartment. I think it used to be Nupraptor’s bedroom. The apartment is barely habitable, but I can vacate the main space within an hour if you want it. It’s the storage room that’s going to take a while.”

“We can try having you show me how to control that power,” Tanyanika said. “Where will you go if I take your home?”

Sarah shrugged. “The only reason I kept living there was so it would be available to you. My plan was to move to the vampire district, but I need to abandon them. There aren’t many places I can go.”

“I’m not going to make you move out until you find someplace else,” Tanyanika said. “When will you start with the lessons?”

“Probably in a few days,” Sarah said. “For now, try figuring out how to not think about your secrets. Thinking about math instead might work.”


End file.
